2018 Sherwood Invitational

I competed three figures today at the 2018 Sherwood Invitational.  Here's how it went.

Practice Ice -- I thought this was scheduled for 6:45 - 7:15 but apparently there was a last minute change to 7 - 7:30.  Oh well, I was early, no big deal. Coach Kelli met me before and then we got on the ice.

Since we had assigned patches for this competition (we hadn't done that at previous competitions) I tried to skate in one of them (patch 8).  We started off with FO8 and it was a little rough at first, but got better.  Then FI8, which was relatively okay.  Then we spent I think 15 - 20 minutes on the BO8. At first it was kind of all over the place.  I managed to get my pushes under control but still having some issues finding center.  On the positive side I was able to easily see my traces so that part was golden.  One of the issues with finding center was that I was tending to wait until I could see the center mark, by which point I was already past it :-( ; so we worked on anticipating that so I pushed more close to the mark.  This was somewhat successful.  The half hour of practice really flew by, and then it was time to get off.

FO8 -- I had one competitor (Tina) for all 3 figures and she was always before me.  We got approximately a 5 minute warmup on patches 1&2 (in practice it was a bit more than 5 minutes).  I got on to warmup the FO8 and at first I was so nervous I couldn't even hold an edge, and of course that scared me.  Eeep!  Kelli talked me down and I was able to get it together.  Then they called me up and I went to compete the FO8 in patch 4.

I did my best to choose a spot that was relatively findable.... and pushed off.  I can't remember specifics much but in general it went better than the warmup.  I think my first LFO was a bit small but after that it was okay.  Return to center was generally okay and I was reasonably happy with this.

FI8 -- after my FO8 I went back to warmup FI8 as I just had a 5 minute warmup between while Tina did her FI8.  The warmup was relatively okay.  Then they called me up to compete in patch 6.

I found a spot that was on a (small) slightly dark paint spot.  Marked my center and pushed off.. and a wave of nervousness went over me and I was on a really bad edge and was off balance... and I PUT MY FOOT DOWN. AGGGHHHH.

I picked it up immediately of course, but by then I figured I was toast and all I could do was skate the best I could as some kind of proof to the judges that I'm not totally inept.  The rest of it went relatively well, actually.  Finished it and got off the ice.

I'm so upset with myself. FI8 is my best figure!  I can't believe I did that.  In all the time I've been competing I've had sucky skates and issues but I don't think I ever did this before.  Oh well.

Then we had a short break.

BO8 - after the break, same deal, 5 minute warmup for BO8.  I asked the referee and he let us move our warmup patch down since 1&2 were pretty well beat up.  So I had cleaner ice to warmup the BO8.    Warmed up and felt relatively okay about it.

They called me out to patch 8 to skate.  I choose a spot a couple feet from the blue line and right in line with one of the red dots so I would see it as I returned to center.  Pushed off... good flow, but return to center was a little too far out.  Pushed to the LBO and I made a rather small circle... ugh.  The rest of it went okay other than I still was not pleased with the return to center, but I had good speed and flow and my circles were reasonably controlled.

And I was done!

Results -- I got 2nd of 2 for each figure.  Took a picture with Tina and we had our usual group picture.  Not happy about the FI8 but in general I was reasonably happy with it, and grateful as always for the opportunity to compete figures.