Digging Deep

Last weekend was a whirlwind of excitement.

The British Bouldering Champs took place right in the centre of Sheffield.  This event is one I always look forward to, and this year was definitely no exception.  I was majorly psyched!  Qualifiers were fun (apart from the rain) with some techy vert, grooves and volume grappling.  The highlight, for me, had to be making it to the top of the grim volume bloc – only Shauna and I sent it!

 

Sunday dawned and so did the sunshine, things were looking a lot brighter. I headed to the works to jump around and get warm, as the warm up board in isolation was less than ideal.  With my muscles firing and brain in gear it was time to get the poker face on, and bring it for semis.  Man I wanted to be in that final.

Semi’s didn’t quite go as well as I had hoped, I managed to top two of the four blocs.  I was pretty convinced it wouldn’t be enough for finals.  I went over to listen out for the results with my coach and Leah anyway, just to check.  Then my name got read out!!  I’d flippin made it! In 6th place.  I had nothing to lose.  I’d got in my first ever senior BBC final!  I was psyched out my tiny mind…AND my training buddys, Shauna and Leah were in too!  The three of us were in!  After some/quite a lot of celebratory dancing, food and a much needed nap it was time for iso again.

Credit: Alex Messenger

Credit: Alex Messenger

The crowd for the qualis and semis had been good, but the final was another level.  We came out for observation and there were A LOT of people.  I was quite surprised by just how many there were.  They were also being hyped up by Liam (commentator/cheerleader) and The DJ who was pretty cool.  I’ve never climbed in front of that many people before and wasn’t sure how I would cope.  Pleasingly I felt absolutely fine, the final was my opportunity to have a lot of fun, try really hard and see what happened.

I had so much fun and I can’t wait to do it all again.  That evening I couldn’t get to sleep for so long, I was just laid in bed buzzing off the adrenaline (and probably sugar from the slab of cake I ate) going over and over what had happened.

Over the last 9 months I’ve been training my butt off.  Trying harder than ever and finding new limits.  Its very satisfying to start to see some of  the hours paying off.

For now though its time to go and dangle off a fingerboard.

Stay psyched.

1 Comment

  • Rob Taylor 15th July 2016 (2:55 pm)

    G’wan, Gracie!

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