Cactus Classic 2011

I skated my new "Battle for the Beat" program this morning at Cactus Classic.

I had practice ice at 7:30 a.m., so I was up at 6:10, got dressed in my costume, put gel in my hair (I had it slicked back for this program), grabbed my gear and was off to the rink.  On arrival I checked in for practice ice and drew my lottery number for getting my music played (they have a lottery to determine the order that music is played -- since it's only a 30 min session, if it's full and you draw a number at the end you might well not get your music played), then went to the men's locker room to change.

Got on the ice at 7:30 and was second in line for music; they wait 5 minutes before they play any music so I got warmed up quickly.  Fortunately it wasn't anywhere as crowded as I was expecting -- only about 12 skaters.  Midway through the previous person's music I went and put on the green belt that indicates the person whose music is playing, then waited my turn.  Went out and ran my program and it went reasonably okay despite nerves and someone getting in my way.  Grrr.  Finished out the practice running through pieces of my program and working on my spins which were not so great.

After practice ice I took off my skates, went and checked in for the competition, then went next door and had some breakfast.  Hung out and watched skating for about an hour, then met up with JJ and went to put my skates on.  I also met my competition!  His name is John, he skates at the Ice Den, he's 52 and has only been skating for 2 years and this was his first competition.

Went out to wait for the warmup (combined warmup with the APB ladies); competition was running a little ahead (!) and they put us on about 7 minutes early.  Worked the warmup and was pretty nervous and my legs were a little wobbly, but I warmed up my jumps and spins and ran through some footwork.  Spins were a bit improved.  Finally we came off from the warmup and the ladies had their skate.  There were two women and us two men and I was last to skate -- ugh.

Finally time to skate; John finished his bows and I got on and talked to JJ briefly (pep talk etc.) then they called me out and I took my position..

Hard to remember all the details (it's been a long day).  I seem to recall being a little shaky at the beginning but then settling down a bit.  First half went pretty well, as I expected (it always seemed easier to me).  Spin at the end was just so-so and I had a little extra time to kill so I stepped forward.  Did my punch-punch thing but I think I looked a little wimpy (grrr) despite all JJ's boxing training :-).

Started into the second half and for some reason I got my arms reversed in the setup so my muscle memory had me do a half-flip instead of the toe loop (grrr!) Then into the footwork -- mohawk was a little wonky, but waltz-sal was more or less okay.  Second booboo, I went into the traveling 3s and for some reason I made the first one a mohawk (!?) but managed the second one, then into the final spin (which was much better than the preceding one!) and finished just a smidge after the music, so I count that as good.

Bowed to judges, bowed to audience, and got off.  Afterward I went and talked to folks until results were posted; I got all 2nd place ordinals.  Congratulated John, and we went to collect medals and get a picture taken etc.

Another competition in the books!

I'll post reactions and other events of today separately.