Dr. Memnus Lagbane Soultooth the Mad

Tournament report: USIAC 2007
STAR FITA + OR

Some background on this tournament: it was not, as you might expect, hosted by a college. It was instead at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' "World Shooting and Recreation Complex," proudly billed by the state as the largest shooting facility in the world. We of the CAP, however, were not impressed, because they still couldn't dredge up a field large enough for us. The shooting line was a strip of duct tape in the parking lot, and the targets were interspersed with trapshooting bunkers.

I had a lot to live up to after Westerns, and suffice it to say I failed. In parctice on Thursday, the headwind was so bad that my sleeve was blown into my string. Two shots in I stepped out and needed to recycle my old finger sling to tie it down. Friday calmed the wind down a bit; not particularly much, though, and it would change directions as the morning progresset. My concentration was not where it should have been, and I didn't even break 500 for the day. Saturday was off and on; a few good ends didn't save my 50m score, but at least I recovered for 30m. Total FITA score was 1086, for a 13th place seed into the ORs.

Sunday was warmer and calmer, and I felt more ready. My warm-up was a Stanford rookie, and opening with an X-X-10 carried me past a Penn College archer, to the next round against ASU's star. I only dropped a couple points in the first two ends, but ignoring my instincts killed me in the third - rather than let down and start over, I shot a three, leaving me down by nine points. I managed to get seven of those back, but was still eliminated before lunch. After hanging out with the Stanford team at Hardee's, I decided not to go back after all, instead opting to park at the airport for a few hours.

Next up: I have a choice for June 23rd-24th. On one hand there's the Utah Summer Games, which I've never shot before and will likely never have a chance to shoot again, a single-day FITA (ow) and ORs. On the other hand, there's the California State Outdoor Championships, which is just a FITA but would at least give me the excuse to be in California again. I hope to have a decision on that one by the end of the weekend.

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Tournament 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.

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Well folks, it's time to buckle down. Most nights now I'll have something that must-get-done-before-I-go-home (tonight is the penultimate batch of grading), which is not a state I like but thank gods it's only for less than two weeks. It doesn't bode particularly well for the quality of what comes out, but uh, cope. I'm also breaking into caffiene supplies, in hopes of, you know, staying awake through class. This is a state I like even less, but after April 27th it's no stimulants until June, and after that back to the status quo which isn't all that different.

I suppose it's what I get for moving somewhere with weather: it's fucking snowing again. SNOWING. In LATE APRIL. I realize that this is what happens; I did grow up in Colorado after all. But the weather is supposed to conform to MY needs. It's supposed to be sunny now that I'm sending myself out running; it's supposed to be warm when I need to practice for a tournament in Phoenix.

My Claremont trip was fun, although somewhat clouded when my stomach decided to wake me at 5:30 Saturday morning with some extremely painful complaints, and proceed not to shut up entirely for nearly 24 hours. A good time was still had!

I'm finally comitted to going to USIACs, though perhaps a day too late. I requested the supposed hotel information, and not only is it ridiculously expensive (110/night two miles away, or 89/night 35 miles away??), but the reservation date was yesterday and the default staying nights are offset from my actual schedule by a day. So, on my own for that one. Also will have to rent a car... suck.

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The tags list on this is going to be huge, I can tell...

( Trips to Claremont, past and future )

( The fate of HAVEN )

( My pentannual computer upgrade )

( Gaming )

( Archer talk )

( Food )

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#7: MIA, Claremont, spring 2006
#10: MIA, San Jose, summer 2006
#6: Retired for damage, winter 2007
#1: Destroyed in action, spring 2007

This is the first time I've had an actual catastrophic arrow failure, but it sure was spectacular. It also means that I'm in the market for new arrows. Larry suggests Navigators, and since I'll be buying them from him and he passed up the opportunity to recommend X-10s, I'll trust him.

(Also: Frances is crazy, just so you know.)

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Back when I was a wee lad, my dad got an exercise machine to but in our basement. It mostly just sat there collecting dust, even though he spent several hours (over the course of a few years) trying to get the three men in the family (including himself) to make a habit out of using it. Needless to say, none of us ever did, but I distinctly remember that I had significantly better lower body strength than upper. I could do probably twice to three times as much weight on leg lifts than I could basically anywhere else.

Tonight, I went down to my complex's (complice's?) Fitness Center to poke around, after a good experience with a free day pass to The Front on Monday. After discovering that no, treadmills don't like me, and I don't exactly have a runner's aerobic endurance, I threw myself upon the mercy of the modern torture device weight machine.

Funny how things change. Either this machine's weights were inaccurate, or my father's machine's weights were innacurate (neither possibility one I'd discount), or I've managed to lose leg strength since I was eleven years old. That's right, my lazy-ass prepubescent self may have had better legs than my current self that walks nearly two miles each day.

Or maybe I'm just misremembering.

In any case, it's time for me to lock down the things I need to focus on for the weekend. If I can keep myself from getting sloppy, and shoot at peak performance all weekend, I'll be looking at a placement that people will notice. To that end, I have a list.

• Breathing. Long, deep, and steady - in as I lift the bow, out as I draw.
• Posture. Keep my chest straight, and my shoulders directly above my hips. The more I drift left, the uglier things get.
• Balance. My feet should be supporting equal weight.
• Correct muscle use. If I feel the pull in my back at full draw, my release will be straight and clean and my hand will go toward my ear instead of my collarbone.

Really, looking at the results that are already out is not particularly productive, but I looked anyway. Out of twelve (or so) locations around the country, only two have posted, and only one has anyone in my division.

For those in the area that think of archery as a spectator sport, Salt Lake Archery is at 1130 E. Wilmington, across from the Wild Oats in Sugarhouse. Scoring starts at 2:00 Saturday and Sunday, and will probably go until 5 or 6; I'll probably be there by 12:30 or 1:00.

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I now have something I haven't had in over four years.

No, not angsty makeouts with near-strangers. Nothing that exciting.

I have freshly-ironed clothes. Some articles were really beginning to need it, and I found an iron on sale for $20 and figured what the hell.

Unfortunately, I also have something I've had more often than I'd like, which is a vaguely sore throat and swollen nodes.

I also have a U archery club, it'd seem, which will be good. It's approaching paperwork deadline, but we should still be ok.

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And (belatedly) thus closes another awesome run of Rocky, marking my fifth. I'm not sure how I'd compare the Emergency Exit Productions stage show against shadowing the movie with the Latter Day Transvestites, except that this was a lot more low-stress. Yes, those of you that thought you'd go insane if this weekend lasted an hour longer, you read that right - it can be worse. Through it all, though, I had a blast, met a lot of awesome people, got my footing in a new city, and am definitely looking forward to next year's run, perhaps even the n years after that.

The run did force me to drop two of my archery days, so when I went back today my string had shrunk all to hell, and my fingers and shoulder had some strong words for me. I was also there when the local definitely-not-SCA chapter came in for their weekly shoot. The two compounders I'd been sharing the range with (a former world champion (I believe) and one of the employees had nothing but words of scorn and derision for them, and I bit my tongue from saying "I think I'd get along better with them than with you." I did try one end where I rmoved Vera's sight and stabilizer and shot that way, but there were two problems with this. One, I didn't take off the extra weight I keep on top of my riser to counterbalance the stabilizer a bit, so was hideously out of line. Two, my arrow rest is simply too small to hold an arrow on its own for any length of time, even my tiny little carbons, so I was shooting with the clicker anyway.

Now I'm busily trying to clean up the place... by which I mean I'm sitting here thinking about how much the place needs cleaning. And furniture. And cats. As it stands, Frances is arriving tomorrow and it looks like we'll be having meals (what we don't get elsewhere, anyway) on the couch, or the floor. Or in bed.

Ok, this post has been sitting here far too long, so off it goes.

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Desert Open: Two-day outdoor FITA

Man, except for this week, I haven't shot outdoor since August. Earlier I'd picked out some sight settings (I've changed some balance and sight stuff since leaving Claremont) which turned out surprisingly effective, although as usual my left-right sighting refuses to be consistent. Given the sleep I got, I shot about as well as I'd hoped to (that is to say, several dozen points lower than I feel like I'm capable of) at 90 and 70, and was in fact shooting somewhat better than expected for the first half of 50, until I fell apart. Over the last five ends I dropped nearly 30 points. The lunch break was good to me, and I was pretty on top of things at 30 - only three shots less than 8, one of which was a hideous twitch of a two.

Final score: 983, and (I think) third place of five. I didn't stick around for awards, though.

Tomorrow, I take the blue skies back to Utah. Thanks for letting me borrow them, guys.

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EDIT P.S. If you're reading this Sunday night in Claremont, and I haven't seen you yet, come give me a hug. You know how to reach me.

United States Intercollegiate Archery Championships: full FITA, plus elimination rounds

It was starting out so well on Friday. After the second end, I was one point off the leader board, in eleventh place.

Then the wind picked up. Third end, I shot a 14 on six arrows, and my morale was shot. I picked myself up a bit for the well-practiced 70m, but figured that at that point I was about a hundred points behind where I ought to and wanted to be. Saturday didn't start particularly well either, never quite getting a great aim at 50m. I did well for 30m, breaking 300 despite not having the right sighting and taking a miss in the first end, but the damage was done. I finished at 960 or so, well behind where I was at Western, and what I'd shot in my practice round last week.

Sunday was elimination rounds, and I was seeded 29th of 48. Just as at Westerns, I got a lower opponent first round, then came up against the 4th seed, and got my ass handed to me. I left, rather than stick around for any remaining eliminations, and now just have to go back for the awards banquet ... if the freeways let me.

What now? I don't even know if I'll have anywhere to practice over the summer. There's a tournament in Sacramento in two weeks, then State Outdoors in Long Beach a few after that, but if I've got nowhere to practice then they'd probably kill me.

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