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Post date: Jun 20, 2011 10:20:13 PM
Last weekend (Saturday, June 18), Trevor finished his MACH4 at the Monterey Bay Dog Training Club agility trial in Scotts Valley. Going into the trial, we needed 32 points to finish our MACH. I didn't expect to finish on Saturday. We got 8 points on our JWW run that morning, and then 16 points on Std in the afternoon. That left us needing 8 more points.
But then as I was preparing to leave for the day, a friend called me over to look at the results. Trevor and I had taken 2nd place. Since the AKC is still offering multipliers for 1st and 2nd place through the end of this month, this meant that we had actually gotten 24 points on our Std run, which gave us exactly the 32 points we needed to finish. Magic!
On the ride home I reflected on our first 3 MACHs, and how a magical narrative seemed to crystalize around them too:
- First MACH: We finished with exactly 750 points. Also, when Trevor pulled me into a mud puddle that morning, it got rid of my nervousness and I "knew" that we were going to finish our MACH that day, with my MACH video showing me streaked in mud.
- MACH2: We finished our MACH2 and our TQX on the same run. The TQX is such a hard title to get that I was just as happy about that as the MACH, if not more so.
- MACH3: We got it exactly a year to the day after we got our first MACH.
- MACH4: Once again, we finished with exactly the points we needed, and with a multiplier, no less. Destiny!
The day after we got our MACH4 was distinctly not magical. It was hot, Trevor dropped a bar on Std, and I had trouble starting my car when it came time to go home.
Are MACHs inherently magical, or are our human brains so wired to look for stories that we will find a way to superimpose a pattern on the chaos? When confronted with a significant event, do we unconsciously will a story into being? Yes, probably. But it's still awfully coincidental. ;-)
Here is the run that turned out to be our MACH run. Notice Trevor on the dogwalk saying hi to the Golden by the side of the ring. No environmental challenges here!
Here is our victory lap, which happened at the top of the Open Std class with the jumps set at 8". I love the guy still doing the walkthrough stepping in front of the camera.
Here is the course map for our MACH run. It was a hard course--very low Q rate, which is why we got 2nd place even though we (ahem!) had a few distractions during our run. Even the course map has a "day after" look, like a prom dress lying in a crumpled heap on the floor.
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