Clean Run - August 2018 - 40

but clean again and third in the class.
The lesson from that day was to do more
work on slice jumps when I am converging and to look for more opportunities
at trials to take those options, so I gain
confidence in Rich leaving the bar up.
And after such a good day, I wasn't going to change my dinner plans. I went
back to happy hour margaritas, chicken
wings, and the sandwich with a salad to
share with Rich at the hotel. This time
when I walked in the staff led a round of
cheers. So fun!
Sunday, I knew we were at least in Challengers, but I wanted to avoid the knife
fight round and go directly to the party
that is Finals. I felt good in the walkthrough for Hybrid. Rich looked brighteyed and ready, but then the first bar
came down. As Jim Basic says, "sometimes the dog doesn't jump high enough."
I think it was that simple, so I spent the
run trying to think of something useful
to get out of it. I marked a self-released
teeter and did a blind after the triple that
I hadn't planned on doing. I don't practice blinds regularly. My training time
goes into the skills that make the blinds
possible, so a blind after a spread seemed
like something that could be useful for a
future run where we had to throw down
as hard as we could.
I declared on Facebook that I was on to
Plan B, winning Challengers. We went
back to the park, then back to the hotel.
On my "Plan B" Facebook post, a friend
commented on it being a "bummer"
since we'd had such a great day the day
before. The comment was bugging me,
until I replied, "Our best is still to come."
Long ago when Vic was at IFCS, a friend
told me a Billy Jean King quote, "Pressure is a privilege." It is one of my favorite
quotes, and I do love pressure. We hung
out at the hotel for a couple of hours,
Rich resting, me watching videos of our
runs (not Hybrid, I still haven't looked at

100

60
8
3

50
10
17

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20

10
10

AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB
22nd NATIONAL AGILITY CHAMPIONSHIP
Finals Standard
Sunday - March 25, 2018 - Reno, Nevada
Windle Ewing
30

that run). Oh, and I changed shirts, since
the one I wore in Hybrid clearly had a
Reno curse.
Challengers was hard emotionally because it is the knife fight round and one
of my closest friends was the top seed.
I've competed against friends in Finals
before, but it felt different in Challengers. You want to win, but you don't want
your friend to lose. I kept telling myself,
"It's my turn," until the sound in my head
was the voice of Anne Hathaway in the

fight scene from Black Swan. Then I went
back to talking to Rich about the fun we
were about to have. We had a terrific run;
it ended up being good enough to win.
I was lucky in finals to have so many
friends also competing. We talked about
the course, which was a great course
with lots of handling options and joked
around. I was mentally exhausted from
Challengers, and it showed in our walkthrough for finals. I am not happy with
how I used the walkthrough since I never

I am happy with the focus and intent that I ran the courses. I am glad I did the backside
serp to a blind in Finals after the last tunnel. It was the first time I've done that in
competition, and it was the right place to do it. If it were a local trial, I would serp
to a rear. And that won't change, I want to save those blinds for when it counts,
and now I know I can and will use those tools when it matters.
40

Clean Run | August 18

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