Monthly update
After I passed Junior Moves on Jan. 30, I started working on my program for Adult Eastern Sectionals. I had five weeks to put my program together and practice like crazy. And what was the first thing I did?
Got ridiculously sick.
I got a sinus infection the week after the test, and then it turned into bronchitis. I took five days off skating, dosed myself with NyQuil and DayQuil, but it didn't do much good. I managed to get most of my program choreographed, but I didn't get a chance to do any full runthroughs before the competition. Up until the day before I left, I was throwing up (or rather dry-heaving since I don't eat before practice) and my heart was beating so fast and I was so out of breath that I had to rest for a few minutes after every jump. So, good shape!
I left for Boston on Feb. 28. The plan was to do some touring of Boston with my friend/host who lives in the area, practice a few days and then compete on Sunday. Practices went OK, I finally choreographed the ending, but still no complete runthrough. Yikes!!
At the competition, during my warmup the monitor said they couldn't play my CD. I told her where to find the backup and continued warming up. The warmup wasn't going too well, and the monitor came back and said she couldn't find my backup anywhere. My CD case was lost (and has yet to be found - goodbye, Madonna, John Mayer, Vanessa Carlton and a variety of burned CDs). Of course, tears started - not crazy sobbing - and I told her that I had the program on my iPod, could they hook it up? I was supposed to skate second after the warmup, but they couldn't get it to work and told me I'd skate last. The referee suggested skating to silence or someone else's music, which made me more upset. I was getting really worked up and then Steven brought his tape adapter and they hooked it up to the sound system. Hooray!! I love my music and I'd be really disappointed to not skate my program.
FINALLY, I am able to skate after the second warmup (I didn't warmup again). I skipped a bit of the beginning because I wasn't getting enough speed to do the lutz-loop. Good lutz-loop, loop, good camel-layback, spirals, messed up the layback (never got a good center), flip, footwork which I left half out, RBI-3 change edge to salchow, step toe loop, sit that was supposed to be a sit-change but I missed the snap and just did a crappy sit.
I was so, so relieved that I survived the whole program. Didn't fall, jumps were pretty good, and I didn't collapse at the end like I thought I would. I ended up placing 5th out of 8. I was pretty happy with that, because everyone who placed above me landed axels and had way more technical content, so I didn't expect to beat any of them. Unfortunately, they were only giving out 1-4 place medals so I didn't get anything, but oh well! My lovely Boston host placed 4th and landed her axel, so I was really happy for her.
Later that day, my Boston host and I competed in the Gold/Masters team event. Our team was Shut Up and Skate:
and we placed 3rd out of 4, but who cares because it was a TON of fun!! It was nice to get a medal, at least. :) I entered Silver Solo Dance, but they cancelled it so team and freestyle were my only events. My STUPID CAMERA ran out of battery, so the only photo I got of the team was the one above. :( I am buying a rechargeable camera ASAP! I am dying to see the photos from the official photographers, but they're not on the website yet. :P
All in all, I had a fabulous time, Boston is completely awesome, and I can't wait for my next competition - not until Sectionals next year!
Got ridiculously sick.
I got a sinus infection the week after the test, and then it turned into bronchitis. I took five days off skating, dosed myself with NyQuil and DayQuil, but it didn't do much good. I managed to get most of my program choreographed, but I didn't get a chance to do any full runthroughs before the competition. Up until the day before I left, I was throwing up (or rather dry-heaving since I don't eat before practice) and my heart was beating so fast and I was so out of breath that I had to rest for a few minutes after every jump. So, good shape!
I left for Boston on Feb. 28. The plan was to do some touring of Boston with my friend/host who lives in the area, practice a few days and then compete on Sunday. Practices went OK, I finally choreographed the ending, but still no complete runthrough. Yikes!!
At the competition, during my warmup the monitor said they couldn't play my CD. I told her where to find the backup and continued warming up. The warmup wasn't going too well, and the monitor came back and said she couldn't find my backup anywhere. My CD case was lost (and has yet to be found - goodbye, Madonna, John Mayer, Vanessa Carlton and a variety of burned CDs). Of course, tears started - not crazy sobbing - and I told her that I had the program on my iPod, could they hook it up? I was supposed to skate second after the warmup, but they couldn't get it to work and told me I'd skate last. The referee suggested skating to silence or someone else's music, which made me more upset. I was getting really worked up and then Steven brought his tape adapter and they hooked it up to the sound system. Hooray!! I love my music and I'd be really disappointed to not skate my program.
FINALLY, I am able to skate after the second warmup (I didn't warmup again). I skipped a bit of the beginning because I wasn't getting enough speed to do the lutz-loop. Good lutz-loop, loop, good camel-layback, spirals, messed up the layback (never got a good center), flip, footwork which I left half out, RBI-3 change edge to salchow, step toe loop, sit that was supposed to be a sit-change but I missed the snap and just did a crappy sit.
I was so, so relieved that I survived the whole program. Didn't fall, jumps were pretty good, and I didn't collapse at the end like I thought I would. I ended up placing 5th out of 8. I was pretty happy with that, because everyone who placed above me landed axels and had way more technical content, so I didn't expect to beat any of them. Unfortunately, they were only giving out 1-4 place medals so I didn't get anything, but oh well! My lovely Boston host placed 4th and landed her axel, so I was really happy for her.
Later that day, my Boston host and I competed in the Gold/Masters team event. Our team was Shut Up and Skate:
and we placed 3rd out of 4, but who cares because it was a TON of fun!! It was nice to get a medal, at least. :) I entered Silver Solo Dance, but they cancelled it so team and freestyle were my only events. My STUPID CAMERA ran out of battery, so the only photo I got of the team was the one above. :( I am buying a rechargeable camera ASAP! I am dying to see the photos from the official photographers, but they're not on the website yet. :P
All in all, I had a fabulous time, Boston is completely awesome, and I can't wait for my next competition - not until Sectionals next year!