CanAm2012 - It was everything I wanted it to be!

I'm still in recovery mode after this weekend.

Last year, for CanAm2011 I was so, so, so, so sick.  Picture the worst cold you've ever had complete with sinus pressure, sore throat, the works.  Now mix that death cold with the plague.... and you've just about got the picture of my suffering.  Last year we also ran 4 teams on Saturday and Sunday (3 on Friday), and it's a long hike from our crating area to the entrance side of the rings...

Needless to say I was pretty miserable feeling last year running 2 dogs on two teams and boxloading a third... and CanAm2011 was still one of the best experiences of my life.  Trophy's team won the Division 8 Championship race.  I have the trophy (not Trophy) sitting on my shelf.  Coming from a team who really doesn't care about placements and running very fast (we rarely run under 20 seconds. We make time, we earn points, we are happy), it was totally unexpected and amazing!

Lori and Bandi, Me and Trophy, Melissa and Harley, Deb and Cruz, Carol and Rhona

I begged to go back this year (this is, of course, after I had infected my team with said plague that everyone else was suffering with for 2 months after CanAm... whoops, sorry guys!).  Begged.  Literally. I believe I got down on my hands and knees and/or threatened to go on several different Open teams if they didn't take me to CanAm again.

Fast forward.  This year we only ran 3 teams on Saturday and Sunday (2 Friday).  I was not sick.  Our Sunday schedule was rather enjoyable.  We once again made it to the Division 8 regular finals and against a team from our region, a team we race against all.the.time we went to 5 heats and we defended out title!  This time Pan was on the winning team. It was an amazing feeling.

Front: Me and Pan, Melissa and Harley, Carol and Rhona, Kris and Dodger, Kandice and Hershey. Back: Sharon (boxloader) Deb and Cruz.

And Video!



Other major accomplishments for the weekend:

• Trophy ran his personal best time in start of 4.761
• I greatly improved my starting split times. I'm still no where near good, but i went from a .9 to consistent .1's so i'm pretty proud of myself.
• Demo earned his FD and FDX titles!!
• Demo ran a 4.33 in start
• Demo never crossed over and for running with 5 other simultaneous rings of flyball around him I am REALLY proud of him.
• Trophy also earned his FDCh-G title officially, since there was a snafu where he lost 100 points at an earlier tournament this year... so it's kind of a hollow victory, but we did it.
• Pan has stopped scaring me to death and didn't try to cross over to the left lane all weekend.
• Pan has backed up to 50+ feet for passing.

Now I have to sit back, relax, continue to recover, and wait for the photographer to get all the photos posted online!