After getting up at about 5:30am (my sleep cycle never really switched to west coast time) I took a shower, dominated a deuce, and did some simple stretching. After Ash got up we went down for breakfast. This was a slightly better than typical hotel breakfast buffet. I threw eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, and veggies on to a plate and tried to reassemble a scramble. A scramble is the breakfast at the small restaurant that we ate at while in Enumclaw, WA. I feel like I'm chasing the dragon with this one. After paying an outrageous $30+ bucks for this breakfast the wife and I pound some more coffee and follow some of the pro guys out to the field. We managed to talk our way into free parking in the lot closest to the competition field. I also found out this was a 2 day contest, this is something that I failed to pay attention to before. OOPS.
We get on the field in time to check, stretch a bit, get gear on, and start warming up. The weather is great somewhere in the high 60*s with a bit of sun. I am feeling pretty good but my head is a bit off, for whatever reason. 4 warm-up throws and it is go time.
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| What an amazing looking group of people. |
1st event: Open Stone 17.6lbs 54'2" 1st place
This stone never during warm ups, but what the hell now is the time to throw less thinking more balls. 1st attempt is a foul out the left side of the trig. I am not getting over the left like I had been in practice so I am driving to far left. 2nd throw is 54' 2" this is enough to put me out front but with John Davis in the crowd I know I will probably need more than that. 3rd is also a foul. I lucked out on this one as well, John did not hit one right either. After the finish John and I talked a bit about what I need to do to throw it over them mountains. Thanks John for the insight.
2nd event: HWFD 56lbs 44'1" 1st place
I am starting to try and get in a bit of a competition rhythm. We start our warm-ups for this one I take about three of these. This implement has an odd shaped handle, so I have to use my thumb condom to throw with. Fat handles kick the shit out of my thumb. 1st throw fouled this throw as well. I have not had this many fouls in a long time. 2nd attempt was around 41' I figured this would be a solid throw but Robin Knebel is capable of throwing better than this. So I was going to have to attack the last one. 3rd was nearly a foul but I managed to save it and then get the chance to restart. I think I came back and got a solid throw to about 42'+. I took one extra throw and finally got it together 44'+. I was missing the low point in the back of the ring and having something to drive against. If I don't do this I will travel to far with the weight to the left side and eventually no be able to finish the throw over the left side like I need.
3rd event: 16lbs hammer 131' 1st place
As of right now this is my weak spot. If I am hoping to compete where I want to as pro I need to be consistent over 135' and over 140' pretty regular. So I have some stuff to work on for sure. 1st attempt, felt solid I think was 120'+ I don't remember exactly. 2nd attempt was a bit better around 128'. 3rd was my best at 131'. There are some major things that I am doing wrong with this throw and some things that I need to be doing but I am not yet.
4th event: caber tiny thing 17' >100lbs ( I think) 4th
There is not much to say about this stick. It was really small and kinda a crap shoot as far as placing goes. I turned it 3 times and with a best of 11:45. I think almost everyone turned it and with the track being off camber and really hard it is as much luck as skill to what is going to happen when it goes over.
5th event: WOB standing only knock off bar. 1st
The contest started at 12' I think I waited till 13' to come in. Typically I would wait till 15' to come in but with the slope of the ground and a knock off bar I wanted to try and get a rhythm of where I wanted to be. I managed to win and go 16'. This has been an avg throw for me. I took a couple of shots at 17 and slammed the bar a couple times, nothing was really close to going over.
This brought about the end of day 1. Ash and I headed back to the hotel to clean up. I went and got in the pool and tried to do some stretching and recovery work. The water was nice and cool not quite like an ice bath but since I am a little lady when it comes to ice baths, this was good enough. Now that we are dressed we went to get some dinner at Outback. Nothing like some good Australian food (Hopefully I can channel Matt Sandford and use some OZ power.) to get me right and put my heavy ass to sleep. I ate 4 lbs of cheese fries, steak, and a potato. I was a sleep by 9:00pm yeah I fucking party.
DAY2:
Same start as the day before up early, shower, then to food and coffee. We decided to skip the expensive disappointment in the lobby. Seriously they didn't even have a waffle machine what is this the 1800's. We picked up some things for the day at target. Breakfast was brought to you by Starbucks and there delicious oatmeal. We got a blanket to lay around on, napping in the shade in CA is one of the greatest thing I remember about throwing on the west coast during college. Then came warm-ups and stretching and on to 1st event.
1st event: Breamar 26lbs 39'1" 1st place new field record
This stone is a monster, it is like throwing a rough heavy bowling ball. after spending sometime trying to make sure I can find a hand on it we get started. 1st throw, 37'+ . 2nd I tried to get down to a lower starting point but I am not strong enough to pull it off with this stone. 3rd was 38'4" so a couple inches off the field record. This field record was set in 1982 so 29 years it has held firm. I took all three extras and on my last one I hit a 39'1" throw to break the record. I hope my record stands just as long but, I seriously doubt it. The upcoming talent is solid.
2nd event: LWFD 28lbs 85'10" 1st place new field record
I have been throwing the 28 really well lately so I expected some good stuff. This implement was a tough one. It has a fat handle and feel really dead in the hand. Warm-ups never felt good or far. 1st felt bad and hung in the hand, it still went 82'+ to my surprise. Other throws never really felt much better. In extras I got one together the best I could and threw 85'10 on my last throw. I broke a two year old record from Chad Gustin. (I know his throw was definitely sexier though)
3rd event: 22lbs hammer 107'6" 1st place PR
I am still trying to figure this one out. My throws with the light hammer are not translating yet to the heavy. Normally you can expect about a 20' drop in distance between the two, I have a 30'. I started using a more dynamic start (ripped of Eric Frasure thanks buddy) and it felt good so I figured why not go for it. My series went 103', 104', 107' I am happy with this a PR is a PR. I am hopping that my big throw of about 115' will happen in two weeks.
This finished up the regular competition, I won 7 of the 8 events. This games was a lot of fun and the group of A's competing were great to throw with. I will miss tossing with these dudes. We now broke for lunch and headed back for two championship events the caber and wob again.
Caber: I got lucky and pulled out the win on this one. We went with a bigger caber, 18' 119lbs. I "turned" the stick and went 9:00, 85*, and a fifer. It was good enough to win that day and make some cash $40. Straight turning sticks cashing checks....
WOB: This was almost a repeat of the day before. I did come a bit closer to hitting 17' but no dice. So another event win and another $40. LIKE A BOSS....
All in all it was a great time. It was very well run and I hope that I get the chance to come back and throw there again next year. Here is the Video of the contest. Enjoy. Also notice my Bad Ass pink tights.
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