| Skating Journal 2001-2002 My First Year Part Five |
| Jackson Hole Invitational Friday, March 15. I left work at noon to help out at the competition which started at 1pm. I was not in any events and was grateful for a day off from skating. My job this first day, and well, actually throughout the competition was to conduct the medals ceremony. I thought that sounded like a fantastically fun job. It turned out to be rather stressful. I had to gather up all of the winners places 1-4. Sometimes there were only 4 competitors and that 4th person was not so eager to get his/her ribbon for "last" place and tended to dawdle. I had to contend with grumpy parents that were waiting for all of the skaters to arrive. I was also located next to the photographer's station who was selling photos. They were understaffed and people often got mad at me because I did not help them. They did not realize I was not affiliated with the photographers. I worked until 7pm when I left for Lori's house to co-host a dinner for the judges. This was a fun time and allowed me some insight into the world of judging. Lori and I wrapped up the dinner, chatted briefly and the I went home to bed. A early wake-up call of 5am loomed before me. Practice ice was from 5:50am - 6:50am and I competed at 7:00am in the Artistic Event!!! I got there more like 6:05 and practiced until 6:40. Man, was I exhausted. I brought with me a bagel and some juice and unfortunately my juice leaked on my bagel and I ended up with only a few bites of Lori's power bar before I skated. Jon was in the announcing booth for my first event. It was sort of fun to have him call my name out. My performace was quite good and I enjoyed skating, even if I only had 5 hours of sleep. I was doing great until the end. I had never messed up the end of this program and in fact I loved the end and practiced it often. For whatever reason, after the final scratch spin, I could not hold my ending position. I teatered and waivered all about until I could finally get my toe pick in the ice and stand still. I was pretty embarrased because I had to look pretty silly. Lori had skated first and performed a great, clean program. Lori and I were both pleased with our performances and were a little releived to be done. We headed back to the dressing room and began to change when all of a sudden I realized that we had to stay dressed for the results and to get our picture taken. We were the first to skate, and there must have been some trouble in the accounting room because it took forever to get our results. We waited to see which one of the skating buddies had won. We went to the wall and saw that I had one. I was happy, of course, but it is always weird when you compete against friends. Lori was very excited and congratulatory and all awkwardness vanished. Since I was in charge of putting on medals and there was hardly anyone else there at 7:30am, we decided to put the medals on each other. A symbolic act of both coming out winners. We got our picture taken on the podium. Later on Saturday we were scheduled for our freeskate program. But first, I got to take a little break from my ceremony job to go get some lunch with Jon. We brought our sandwiches back to the rink and watched a practice session. That was when I had my first opportunity to check out our competition. It wasn't hard to notice another adult skater amoung the young girls. Lori and I had company in the Freeskate Event. She was from Ft. Collins, CO. We introduced ourselves to her after her practice and realized our competitor was quite friendly and nice. Nevertheless, we still feared her fabulous Camel Spin. The afternoon sped by and soon it was time to skate again. Somehow I was really excited to perform my freeskate. I had not skated it for an audience yet and it was still pretty new. Even my coach had not seen much of it yet. The music is fun and uplifting, with a bit of a howdown feel. It was just the right music for me. I was ready to have some fun. I was jumping all around waiting for my turn. I went last again. So, I saw Lori's clean program and I saw the other skater fall - Hard. I felt bad for her. She still did two killer Camel's though. Then, it was my turn. I was going to see what I could do to this fast fun music. Either I was going to wow, or I was going to look like an idiot for picking such challenging music. I had a blast. I really had fun with my program. I wasn't worried about anything. I put my foot down a bit after the Lutz, which made me made because I do that jump well, but it was in a corner and I hoped the judges did not see it too well. Then there was the ending pose...I don't know what my problem was that day, but I could not end my programs without shaking all over and looking silly. Three of my co-workers came to see me skate and so I talked with them until the scores were posted. My feet hurt so badly I had to sit down. It seemed to take forever to get the scores posted. I had taken first place. Then I noticed that I had received all first place ordinals and this brought tears to my eyes. I was so pleased with my performance and had so much fun. Sunday came very quicly and I was feeling completely worn out after the competing and volunteering. It was another early wake-up call for the team event. The team event is comprised of 4 skaters of similar level each executing a different element. The group is then judged as a whole against the other teams. Our team, "The Young and the Restless" (so named for the obvious gender gap between members) took first place. The last event I was involved in was the Interpretive Event. I was asked as a favor to compete in this event so that Lori would have a competitior. I had no idea what to expect or what I was getting into. I have not skated long enough to have a nice repetoir of skating moves that I can throw into a program I make up on the spot. Lori and I are good friends with the competition chairman and we had a strong hunch he was going to try and embarrass us with the musical selection. So, we went out for the practice and heard the music for the first time. It was Vougue by Madonna. When it was my turn, I went out there and just let loose. I am glad no one video taped me! I think I would be embarrassed to see it. When I was awarding skaters their medals I had a fun encounter. One of the little girls who had just received a medal, could see in my jacket that I had a medal on. She said, "what's that?" pointing to my medal. I said, "That's my gold medal". "Oh" she responded. I asked her, "Did you think I was too old to skate?" "Yes" she responded. I told her, "You are never too old to ice skate, you can do it for the rest of your life." Sunday after I skated the Interp event one of the little skaters asked me, "Are you the lady that gave me my medal yesterday?" "Yes," I said. "Oh, good job out there," she responded. I was even offered a lollipop from another skater who had hunted me down to offer me my choice of grape, lime or cherry. I chose cherry. It was fun to interact with the young skaters who might not have yet been exposed to adult figure skating. I even had an opportunity to speak with a girl who was at the beginning levels of skating and was already 15. She had a mature figure for 15 and her mom had expressed concern about her age and figure. I told her that skating is for everyone and that even as an adult she can skate and compete. There is no reason for her not to skate if she is having fun - there are opportunities for her out there. The competition came to a close and I had a great time. Only one week of skating left. |
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