It's Fun, I Swear!

I competed at the Colonial Adult Winter Challenge this weekend. It was my first time competing in freestyle in over a decade. Let's just say... it wasn't my best. Far, far far from it. In fact I'm pretty sure the judges hated it. My score was so low, a juvenile skater wouldn't wipe their butt with my score sheet.

But! Despite popping two jumps and falling on a third, coming in second out of two, and having a good cry on the way home, after a day of processing the experience I realized...the overall experience was kinda...well... fun.

It was a genuine thrill to be back in the game. Getting dressed up and performing is always a gas, even when you end up zamboning the ice with your backside.

Here's the rundown:

My husband and I left the toddler with my parents and drove out to Boston on Friday night. Stayed at my grandmother's house (she made me a very energizing breakfast the next morning! Thanks, Nana!), and drove to Nashoba Valley Olympia for a quick morning practice, during which I nailed everything. Literally, could not have skated better. Having a good three hours to kill, we drove around the Acton area looking for something to do and naturally ended up at a very crowded Starbucks. Threw back a cool lime refresher and headed over to the HomeGoods across the way (yes, we had that much time to kill) to look at a rug I'd been eyeing for my living room. We drove back to the rink and I did a little off ice, visualizing my program and plotting it out in the locker room. Got my hair did (it's a lot harder when you don't have teammates helping you!) and suited up.

Holy cow I was nervous. Like a muscle-freezing, oh-my-God-why-am-I-doing-this anxiety. I tried to calm myself with limited success using yogic breathing. The nice people by the entrance to the rink must have thought I was a head case. One woman even patted me on the back reassuringly as I waited my turn to get on the ice. Got on the ice for warm up and had an epic wipe-out on a 2flip that left me with a sizeable bruise on my arm that is actually hurting as I type this. I skated second, so I got off the ice and proceeded to wait the agonizing 3 minutes and 40 seconds of my competitor's program. I didn't watch. I've learned from my years of competing that it's not a good idea for me to do so.

She finished, and I got on the ice. Never having done an IJS event before, I didn't realize there would be like a million minutes between when a competitor gets off the ice and when the next competitor is announced. So I'm nervously pacing, doing a few single jumps, alright let's get on with this, people. Finally, they announce my name, and it's go time. Long story short, I popped both 2loops and fell on the second 2toe of my 2toe-2toe combo. I don't even know why I fell. I guess I was trying to be dramatic? Anyway, I got through it and wasn't dying at the end. And I nailed the 2flip, so that was a good thing...

Fast forward to the score sheets. My competitor (who was very nice by the way, I am looking forward to seeing her again next week at Easterns) and I were separated by about 2 points. Sigh.

I humbly accepted my medal and paid the 25 cents to get my annotated score sheet. Had a small breakdown in the parking lot, so I didn't really get a chance to look at the score sheet. But I got around to perusing it while we're driving up the Mass Pike. I thought the accounting was wrong - they left out an entire element (an axel) by mistake, so I received a lower score than I should have. The axel was in the second half of the program, and I did a little footwork into an out of it (raises the base value), it is entirely possible that if it had been counted, I would have actually won. 

It would have been a cheap win of course, as I still didn't skate that well...but that's not the point. Turns out I the axel was an extra illegal jump that they lumped into my footwork score. Oops. See a shot below of the score sheet...for the uninitiated, all you really need to see is that they skipped from element #6 to element #8.

Anyway, the judges hated my sit-spins, and apparently didn't like my jumps all that much either. I'm not holding out much hope for better results at Easterns. Honestly though, I'm ok with that. The competitive season was a lot to take on with a baby and my work, and I am satisfied with how much I've accomplished just in training. So next Saturday's competition will be like a capstone to a good year of skating. It will be FUN!

Oh, and I didn't initially want to share the video due to acute embarassment, but f--- it. Here it is: