OK. I consider myself a pretty humble person. I'm not a braggart. Perhaps the very existence of this blog contradicts that statement. I don't think I bore people to tears over my life's accomplishments. At least no one is forced to endure my ramblings here. I probably err on the side of self deprecation. So what I did today was out of character for me.
I watched Susan Mitchell's run with her puppy Psych in Starters Jumpers today and it was beautiful. 18 seconds and something. WOW. Shane's run was equally beautiful and I glanced at the timer as we left the ring. 20.77 seconds. I thought WOW, we were almost as fast as that expert handler and her border collie. I felt very proud. The time was etched into my memory.
So imagine my shock when I returned later to get the statistics and saw our time was recorded as 27.77 seconds at third place. OK. I thought to myself, maybe I saw the time incorrectly. Then I thought 2077 might sound like 2777 to the person recording the time, so I asked the score table if I could see my scribe sheet. It was recorded as 27.77. Damn. I then asked them about it and told them I saw 20.77. We went back and forth a few times and because of my persistence, Rona offered to look up the time for me in the box after they were all done scoring. Fabulous! I waited. Patiently.
Rona examined the scores and sure enough, 20.77 was in the machine. Magical! But they needed the judge to change the scribe sheet. The judge in that ring had masters level people all weekend until the end with us lowly starters. Rona explained a bit to her as to what I was questioning, and I could see from the side that the judge was making a face to the crowd as if I were some diva demanding they change my score. "Isn't this Starters?" Like it didn't matter. She turned to me and snottily said "You got a Q." Like so what. I just looked at her speechless. She then asked "Do you have a video of the run?" "No" I said. "Well without a video, you have no proof." I then asked, "Even if the box says I'm right?" Rona backed me up saying my score was the only one that didn't match the box. The judges face suddenly softened and she apologized to me. I got the score and 1st place, but I felt terrible. I thanked everyone profusely for taking the time to straighten things out when inwardly I was seething over the judge's attitude toward us Starters.
I was so excited about the time and it was almost taken away from me. If Rona hadn't been able to look up my time in the box, I would have had to settle for 3rd place. Because that time was etched into my mind, I felt I had to follow through. I don't care if we are "just Starters". That time meant a lot to me and now, after a few glasses of wine, I feel good about standing up for myself.
No comments:
Post a Comment