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Pity those near me.
Apr. 29th, 2007 11:51 pmTournament report: 2007 CAP Western Regional Championships
STAR FITA + individual ORs
I went into this tournament on two days of practice - that is not an exaggeration. New arrows, new form, both only tested outside the Sunday and Tuesday preceeding the competition. So I wasn't expecting much.
The first day, I began to realize I needed to set my standards a bit higher. A forty-point improvement at 90m from my old usual, to 241, was nothing compared to the shock of shooting a 298 at 70m - a score which would turn out to be the best in my division. Only 90 was leaving me 40 points behind.
The day was hot as hell, and as we tried to get ready for the team ORs a dust storm blew in, causing a declaration of "unsafe conditions" (ie targets falling over) and we were done for the day. The day after was a bit less hot, and a bit more humid, and the second-place shooter dropped out for heat exhaustion, leaving me in a very unfamiliar position: chasing a medal. I knocked in extremely solid showings at 50m and 30m - 292 and 329 respectively - for a total of 1160, I believe second place.
At this point it was getting extremely late, because the team ORs had been moved to Sunday morning and the actual scoring hadn't started until nearly 11. Individual ORs didn't start until 4... and dragged on and on, as they tried to line up a field of newbies on not enough targets... and my 7:30 flight loomed closer and closer. At the clock rolled past 5, the sun started to set, and suddenly I found myself at a serious disadvantage as a left-handed archer. The sun was dropping quickly in front of me and behind everyone else on the line. My scores started to show it, and though I never embarassed myself, I was knocked from my #4 seed in the semifinals. (I'll give you one guess as to by how many points. Weird.)
The time was then 6:10, and I decided to go for it. Giving my regrets to the TD, I headed for the car, changed my shirt, and booked it back to the airport. If I'd known the route a bit better I might have made it; as it was, my flight to SLC was closed with no open seats on later ones. The remaining option, other than the 7:15 flight the next morning (infeasible, given the 6 AM meeting I have) leads me to where I am now - a layover in Vegas, getting me home by, uh, 2:30 in theory. In fact, it's a "potential oversold situation" which would just be the icing on the cake. All this, just to get stuck in Vegas with only a laptop, a stretch band, and eight people counting on seeing me tomorrow.
To summarize: Take anything you'd devote two entire days to that would leave you no energy for anything else. Move 15% of that thing from day one to day two. Once all that's done, get only two hours of sleep before going back to work. That's how exhausted I'm going to be tomorrow... for now I'm still running on adrenaline fumes.
click
STAR FITA + individual ORs
I went into this tournament on two days of practice - that is not an exaggeration. New arrows, new form, both only tested outside the Sunday and Tuesday preceeding the competition. So I wasn't expecting much.
The first day, I began to realize I needed to set my standards a bit higher. A forty-point improvement at 90m from my old usual, to 241, was nothing compared to the shock of shooting a 298 at 70m - a score which would turn out to be the best in my division. Only 90 was leaving me 40 points behind.
The day was hot as hell, and as we tried to get ready for the team ORs a dust storm blew in, causing a declaration of "unsafe conditions" (ie targets falling over) and we were done for the day. The day after was a bit less hot, and a bit more humid, and the second-place shooter dropped out for heat exhaustion, leaving me in a very unfamiliar position: chasing a medal. I knocked in extremely solid showings at 50m and 30m - 292 and 329 respectively - for a total of 1160, I believe second place.
At this point it was getting extremely late, because the team ORs had been moved to Sunday morning and the actual scoring hadn't started until nearly 11. Individual ORs didn't start until 4... and dragged on and on, as they tried to line up a field of newbies on not enough targets... and my 7:30 flight loomed closer and closer. At the clock rolled past 5, the sun started to set, and suddenly I found myself at a serious disadvantage as a left-handed archer. The sun was dropping quickly in front of me and behind everyone else on the line. My scores started to show it, and though I never embarassed myself, I was knocked from my #4 seed in the semifinals. (I'll give you one guess as to by how many points. Weird.)
The time was then 6:10, and I decided to go for it. Giving my regrets to the TD, I headed for the car, changed my shirt, and booked it back to the airport. If I'd known the route a bit better I might have made it; as it was, my flight to SLC was closed with no open seats on later ones. The remaining option, other than the 7:15 flight the next morning (infeasible, given the 6 AM meeting I have) leads me to where I am now - a layover in Vegas, getting me home by, uh, 2:30 in theory. In fact, it's a "potential oversold situation" which would just be the icing on the cake. All this, just to get stuck in Vegas with only a laptop, a stretch band, and eight people counting on seeing me tomorrow.
To summarize: Take anything you'd devote two entire days to that would leave you no energy for anything else. Move 15% of that thing from day one to day two. Once all that's done, get only two hours of sleep before going back to work. That's how exhausted I'm going to be tomorrow... for now I'm still running on adrenaline fumes.
click
