As usual, before the competition, I went to Mc Donald's and had some hash browns for breakfast. Little did I know that these hash browns weren't lucky hash browns!
When I arrived at Boulders I looked at the routes and hated them which made me feel even more nervous. Next I looked at the bouldering problems and these didn't look too bad. There was one problem which you had to crawl through like caving. This looked really cool. I was still feeling nervous about the routes but I warmed up well. I couldn't use the route I was going to for falling practise because it was roped up. We found a wall that was free but it was really short. This made me scared of falling to the ground which wasn't going to happen but my brain does believe this when I am just about to fall. If I could have two things programmed into my head for ever, they would be: not being scared of falling and times tables!
The competition was about to start and I wasn't happy or confident or anything! My judge told me my route would be orange which looked pretty easy. When it was my turn to climb I reached the 4th clip with no problems. Next I came to a crimp level with the clip and still in my comfort zone. My hands were sweaty, but I got chalk and I held on. The next hold wasn't far away but I didn't want to risk smearing in case I fell off. So I put my foot out but not up and went for the hold. I touched it but didn't grab it enough to stick it. I came down so disappointed and sad. I should have topped that climb easily! Phoebe and Hannah did well and topped the climb. I was upset because I thought that I might not qualify for the final in Ratho.
Next I tried the green climb, I got to the last quick draw but couldn't clip it because the hold I was holding felt sweaty probably because I was nervous. I dropped because I was so scared. I cried again because I thought that I could do better.
It was at least half an hours wait until the last climb which gave me time to get psyched for the last route. I really wanted to qualify for the final in first place. The other girls were really friendly and chatting to them helped take my mind off the last climb.
After everyone else had climbed I was called. I was nervous again but determined to get really far up this climb to try and gain some more points. The first bit that I thought was going to be tricky wasn't that hard. This made me less nervous and so I felt better about the part of the climb on the roof which looked hard as well. I managed to reach the roof ok but couldn't reach the hold on the other side of the wall. I was hanging around for a long time getting tired until I couldn't hold on any longer and jumped for the hold - missing it.
I did much better on the last climb and felt more confident about qualifying for the final in Edinburgh.
For a break mum, dad, Oscar and myself went to TGI Fridays to get a drink. I had an Oreo milkshake.
We just got back in time for the bouldering. Most categories had already started apart from ours as our judge had gone walkies. The first two problems were pretty easy and I competed them first try. The third problem looked really hard and I failed it on my first two attempts along with everyone else. Nobody got further than the first hold. My third attempt was my final climb of the day. If I did this I thought I had a really good chance of winning and I knew I would qualify. It was my turn to go. I held the starting holds and jumped for the next hold just grabbing it with my fingers. I then adjusted my fingers and went for the next hold which was fairly similar to the previous hold (a sloper). From here I dynoed forcing my feet and the rest of my body through the air and one hand shot out and grabbed the hold and yanked the rest of my body in. I moved through the next holds to the top dynoing for the last hold. I made it, matched it, came down and felt really happy.
When the results came out I was disappointed to be second but thrilled to qualify. Hannah came first by 5 points so the result was pretty close in the end.
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