Skating Fridays

Sectionals Recap – Part 2

Today I am back to recap the age group event at Adult Sectionals. There were 6 of us in the event.

I had an evening practice the night before, and that session was crazy busy. There were probably 20 skaters on the ice, all flying at high speeds, and I was one of two people that spin and jump “the other way.” Those types of sessions scare me, since most people don’t expect to have many (or any) clockwise skaters like me. Somehow, I did not die and managed an OK practice. My axels started disappearing, so that was concerning. However, I tried not to worry about them and landed a few before practice ended.

My bestie and I had signed up for an early morning practice at 7:05am. We would have had to leave the hotel by 6:30 to get there, then head back to the hotel, change, and immediately go back to the rink for our 9:25am event. After much thought and deliberation, we decided to skip our morning practice ice and get some extra sleep instead.

On the way to the event, something hilarious happened to us. We had Google Maps running on my phone, which was plugged into the car (it was my bestie’s husband’s car, which she does not drive often). My bestie asked me to look up something on my phone, so I navigated out of Google Maps and into my browser. As I began typing in the browser, the car radio randomly turned on and started blasting “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Springfield. We just got rickrolled! We had no idea how that happened or how to turn OFF the radio! My friend was laughing so hard that she started crying. It was exactly what we needed to ease our nerves and make us smile.

I took it easy during our 6 minute warmup and was 5th to skate. I should have taken my skates off but didn’t. As a result, my feet started getting cold and my legs stiffened.

However, I managed to skate and finish my program. My elements were shaky at best, and my spins were not stable. I had expected to score in the 24 point range. Somehow, I ended up earning 27.46 points! I thought that my axel would get dashed (meaning 0 points), but it did get called!

Despite all the flaws in the program, I managed to earn the silver medal and a personal high in my PCS. I’ve been working on telling a story more and emphasizing my skating skills. All in all, it was a good outcome for the age group event.

Wait until next week, when I tell you about the Championship event in Part 3 of my recap. Our event finished around 10am but the Championship event was that same afternoon. Yikes!