Adult Sectionals Recap, Part 1
Last weekend, I traveled to compete at my adult sectionals event. We arrived the evening before two of my events. The first day, I was scheduled to skate in both the Dramatic Entertainment and Championship Gold Ladies events. My two events were only separated by about an hour, so I didn’t have a lot of time in between.
My Dramatic Event was first, and I was 3rd to skate. Honestly, I didn’t care about how I ended up in the results because this particular program was for my mom. I skated to “Rise Up” by Andra Day, and I dedicated this to her. I’m not going to get into details on this right now but just know that I skated with a lot of emotion, and that’s all that mattered to me. I ended up 5th out of 6.
I drew the last slot in the Championship event, so I was the 22nd skater out of 22. That was a looooong wait. To make matters worse, the Zamboni had issues so the event ran 45 minutes late. That meant that I was at the rink for an additional 45 minutes before I was scheduled to go out there.
I did not skate well. I could tell you all the reasons why I didn’t, but then I’d be making up excuses. The bottom line is that my body just did not cooperate. My mind was good, and I was in the zone and skating in the moment, but for some reason, I just could not execute and do my job.
Two very funny things happened during my performance. The first was that I got so discombobulated out of my opening spin that I went the wrong direction after I came out of the spin. I skated a third of my program going the wrong direction. The second thing was that after my second spin, I went the wrong direction AGAIN so I actually ended up skating in the correct way for the last third of the program. Two wrongs = right. Yup, I somehow flipped my program around TWICE.
At the end of the day, I came in 16th place. Again, my body just did not execute as it normally has so something was just off. Had I actually performed like I normally do, I would have ended up 7th or 8th.
It just was not my day. I was hoping to redeem myself in the open Gold freestyle event two days later. I will recap that next week.
Awww, Eva, sounds like a rough day! But it also sounds like you rallied and could improvise, which is super hard to do. I can’t even imagine doing some of a program going in a different direction. Anyway, I hope you gave yourself a pat on the back for getting through it–the real champs are not necessarily on the podium! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the competition.
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Honestly, I was surprised that I was able to flip my program around twice! It was so confusing! No matter what placement I got, I still had a blast seeing Skating friends.
Oh gosh, that can certainly happen on an unfamiliar rink, but how funny (not at the time of course) that it happened twice and sort of cancelled each other out. I’m glad you were able to skate a program dedicated to your mom, that sounds very meaningful. Skating has really helped me work through my emotions and give them a place to go when they are overwhelming, I hope it’s also doing that for you.
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Yes – the dramatic program was not for the audience or the judges. It was for my mom. And despite my shaky legs, I really skated my heart out and emoted. That’s what matters!