Adventures in Victoria
Two meets, two weekends in a row. If I were going to senior nationals, it would be three. But that's just too damn tiring.
Here's the cool part, though--I could go to seniors if I wanted to.
First was 1m, which went even better than it did in Edmonton! All five dives were solid; I don't think I got anything lower than a 6. Remember that inward I said I was good at? I got 7 1/2s on it, which are really good scores...but my coach gave me and 8 1/2, and one point is a big difference. It was kind of embarrassing, really; I mean, he could at least pretend he doesn't like me best.
Anyway, last week I set a personal best with 216 points when my goal was 210; this week I shattered that personal best with 237 points. If I had gotten that score in Edmonton, I would have won the event. As it was, I won silver, which is what I expected, honestly. Gold (262 points) went to this 12-year-old freak of nature whom I can confidentally say will compete in Beijing 2008 (she's already competed in the Commonwealth Games), and bronze (201 points) went to a teammate of mine. Those are some pretty big gaps between the top three placements; I don't know where all the good divers have gone.
Today was 3m, and I did well again! When was the last time I did two events I was happy with? Never. Honestly, never. Before Edmonton, I'd never even done one full event that I was happy with. I nailed front, then I nailed inward (but stood there for waaay to long before doing it, so I lost points), reverse was solid, back was kinda too easy and went over a bit, and then reverse twister...
First of all, that dive is crazy. I've never competed it before. That 12-year-old crazy good girl? She doesn't do it. No one does it at this level. I could tell the judges were psyched to see me try it, especially because I'd been doing it well in warm up (somehow dives become easier during competition warm up...go figure), but I was so terrified when I was standing there that I actually thought I was going to be sick.
Competing 3m is always intimidating. Do you have any idea the fear that strikes me when they say "Reverse two and half somersaults?" All I can think is, "That's so many flips!!" before I stand there, torn between doing the dive and just bursting into tears and running away, and then eventually decide to just scream internally and do it anyway. When they announced "Reverse one and half somersaults with two and a half twists," I really thought I would just collapse into a dead faint. That's SO MUCH CRAP to fit in ten feet of space! So I was shaking with a combination of fear and adrenaline as I was doing the hurdle, which meant that the dive wasn't great...but it was still really cool.
Anyway, my goal for 3m was 235 points, and I got 242--another silver medal (same gold and bronze medallists as on 1m, again with big gaps all around) and another personal best! And if you're wondering why I picked those apparently random numbers to aim for, it's because those are the scores necessary to be allowed to go to senior nationals. So although I was technically a senior national diver before, now I firmly am.
And I am delighted with myself. I think I'm (finally) getting the hang of this whole competing thing that I was always so bad at.
**
Also...
"A surgeon and a doc, above it aaaaall!"
*throw*
"Say it!"
"I'm your biatch."
LMAO.
**
Here's the cool part, though--I could go to seniors if I wanted to.
First was 1m, which went even better than it did in Edmonton! All five dives were solid; I don't think I got anything lower than a 6. Remember that inward I said I was good at? I got 7 1/2s on it, which are really good scores...but my coach gave me and 8 1/2, and one point is a big difference. It was kind of embarrassing, really; I mean, he could at least pretend he doesn't like me best.
Anyway, last week I set a personal best with 216 points when my goal was 210; this week I shattered that personal best with 237 points. If I had gotten that score in Edmonton, I would have won the event. As it was, I won silver, which is what I expected, honestly. Gold (262 points) went to this 12-year-old freak of nature whom I can confidentally say will compete in Beijing 2008 (she's already competed in the Commonwealth Games), and bronze (201 points) went to a teammate of mine. Those are some pretty big gaps between the top three placements; I don't know where all the good divers have gone.
Today was 3m, and I did well again! When was the last time I did two events I was happy with? Never. Honestly, never. Before Edmonton, I'd never even done one full event that I was happy with. I nailed front, then I nailed inward (but stood there for waaay to long before doing it, so I lost points), reverse was solid, back was kinda too easy and went over a bit, and then reverse twister...
First of all, that dive is crazy. I've never competed it before. That 12-year-old crazy good girl? She doesn't do it. No one does it at this level. I could tell the judges were psyched to see me try it, especially because I'd been doing it well in warm up (somehow dives become easier during competition warm up...go figure), but I was so terrified when I was standing there that I actually thought I was going to be sick.
Competing 3m is always intimidating. Do you have any idea the fear that strikes me when they say "Reverse two and half somersaults?" All I can think is, "That's so many flips!!" before I stand there, torn between doing the dive and just bursting into tears and running away, and then eventually decide to just scream internally and do it anyway. When they announced "Reverse one and half somersaults with two and a half twists," I really thought I would just collapse into a dead faint. That's SO MUCH CRAP to fit in ten feet of space! So I was shaking with a combination of fear and adrenaline as I was doing the hurdle, which meant that the dive wasn't great...but it was still really cool.
Anyway, my goal for 3m was 235 points, and I got 242--another silver medal (same gold and bronze medallists as on 1m, again with big gaps all around) and another personal best! And if you're wondering why I picked those apparently random numbers to aim for, it's because those are the scores necessary to be allowed to go to senior nationals. So although I was technically a senior national diver before, now I firmly am.
And I am delighted with myself. I think I'm (finally) getting the hang of this whole competing thing that I was always so bad at.
**
Also...
"A surgeon and a doc, above it aaaaall!"
*throw*
"Say it!"
"I'm your biatch."
LMAO.
**