Let’s cut to the chase. I bombed – BADLY. I mean, it wasn't even not even "sort-of" bombing. I took eighth place out of 10. I’ve never done this horrible at a competition. When I was leaving Boise, I couldn’t find my video or digital camera. So, no pictures or videos mean it never happened, right?
This is going to be painful to write.
I traveled to Mississippi alone and had one debacle after another. I got lost MANY times on my way from Memphis to Tunica and then from the competition hotel to my hotel. I was seriously in the middle of nowhere, it was pitch black and I was freaking out. I FINALLY made it to my hotel after 11PM Friday night. I was so wiped out that I didn’t even bring my suitcase up to my room. Saturday morning rolled around and I felt solid and ready to go.
170 Pound Log Press: I got my ammonia on and walked up to the log ready to kill it. Whoops! It wasn’t my turn. Talk about a weekend of confusion. This happened many times to me throughout the competition when I thought it was my turn, but it really wasn't. It was finally my turn and I goose-egged it. I got the log to the top of my head and couldn’t even lock one rep out. That's pathetically shocking. Like usual, my pressing put me in a bad position to recover points, not that things got much better. The point breakdown made one rep worth five points because there were several of us who zeroed.
550 Pound Yoke, 80-Foot Walk: On Friday night, we determined yoke heights. I wasn’t totally convinced the height I chose was right, but didn’t have a chance to verify and change it on Saturday morning. I should've gone higher. This was another event in which I was off my game. I was moving with the yoke and “Sarge” John Allen from the Sequim Crew was my judge. He kept yelling at me to lift my head, my vision was locked on the ground, head down, which equates to a slow performance. I finished somewhere about 20 seconds, which was middle of the pack-ish.
200 Pound Farmers Handles, 80-Foot Walk: I fully expected to come in and whoop on farmers. The reality was, that it during this event, I wasn’t focused on speed. My head wasn’t in there. After Sarge kept yelling at me to move, it finally clicked and I moved a little faster. I came in around 14.4 seconds, which was good for mid-bottom of the pack.
550 Pound Frame Deadlift: The car deadlift was switched to frame deadlift for reps due to the massive amount of lightweight men competitors who weren’t able to even complete one rep. The legs on my Metal suit were still tight, but as long as the suit doesn't ride on my hamstrings, it works well. I got 17 reps, good for a three-way third place tie. In hindsight, I would've skipped the suit or worked harder to get the legs higher. The pressure on my quads slowed me down. It was the end of day one, or what I refer to it as "Pure Torture." The worst part by far was e-mailing Dave to tell him how badly I sucked. I’ll admit it…I had a few tears rolling down my cheeks. I hate sucking. Day two wasn’t any better. At this point, I knew I was at the bottom of the pack, so my thought was to just get the torture over with. Even two first-place finishes wasn’t going to do a thing for me.
200 Pound Keg Carry: I got about 90 feet, which was good for eighth place. Blah!
240 Pound Stone Load Over Bar: My master plan was to go big AND go home. In my head, the plan was to do one rep, call it good and make a grand exit. In the end I couldn’t do that, and take last place on an event. I ended with five reps and eighth place, which was somewhere mid-bottom of the pack. During my load, I spent a lot of valuable time rolling and playing with the stone to get it set just right. What I should've done, was rip it up and over.
The highlights of my trip were hanging out and catching up with The Sequim Crew. Sarge and his group are by far some of my favorite people to talk with. I got to see some strong chicks lift heavy stuff and I got to meet one of Sam Byrd’s training partners. I am so sorry I didn’t catch her name. But, she is awesome and I’m glad we got to hang out. I know our paths will cross again sometime soon and hopefully I will have the honor of meeting Sam.
I still haven't processed this fiasco. Strength wasn't the issue, I didn't perform. Dave summed it up when he told me shit happens. He’s right, and there are lessons to be learned. I'm so appreciative to have the best teammates ever offering support, wisdom and encouragement through what felt like a natural child birth of a 15-pound ugly baby. Everyone has that one competition or meet they’d like to forget and in all my years, this is my first. I consider myself fortunate. At the end of the day, I really can’t lose. I have many additional thoughts and important things to share. These things will be reserved for their own article. I wanted to simply focus on my performance in my write-up. I lived to fight another day, learned some valuable lessons, and I'm ready to move forward with all of the exciting lifting on my plate for the coming months. The switch to powerlifting for the winter is on. As for now, I will sleep a few hours and hope I don’t get lost on my way to the airport because a 3AM wake up call is going to be tough.