The ripe old age...

I have retired from competing at a national level. Saturday's BBC07 was the last national competition I will take part in. I have been a regular competitor in the BBCs since 2003 and I have never gotten into a final. I think I have given myself enough opportunities to do so, and I've failed. Training for competitions and being good at climbing in them has moved further away from actual rock climbing, such that the training for them is almost mutually exclusive.

Saturdays was a hard round in my opinion, and others seemed to agree. It was also very very busy. Graeme had stopped taking walk in entrants due to the massive amounts of pre registered climbers. I think I heard that there were 75 competitors (15 girls) and of course, they were all vying for space on 10 problems. 5 of the problems were shared, which means that girls and boys get to do them, and usually, for the boys thats a bit of a gift, but some of these problems were hard! God knows how the girls fared. I don't do well when I cant climb when I am ready, and the wait between attempts could be as much as 20 minutes on the busier problems. I was massively jittery - felt really nervous, and this only really shifted when I started falling off problems. This is another factor in my thinking I am quitting. I know I can do better without the pressure. I don't feel the pressure in the local wall comps, but that's probably because I dont really care about the outcome. So, of the 5 shared problems I should (and could) have flashed all five. They weren't too bad. Its funny when you are queuing for a problem how everyone follows the sequence of the person who last suceeded - I tried this green problem sharing a rubbish honey combed hold, and it felt feasible, but when I moved I had no purchase to hold myself in and I was spat off. On my next go I saw the error of my ways and bounced off the nasty honeycomb share to a rounded boss, and after I did that so did everyone else. When I did this problem I couldnt believe I hadnt flashed it, it felt so steady. And thats another thing with comp problems, they arent about pulling hard, they are about guessing the trick - not so much a test of skill and/or strength, but a test of cunning.

Results

The one thing I will miss about the BBC's is the social side of things. There are some nice people who go, and there are also some not so nice people. There are loads of good people between me and glory and unless I can mow them all down in a blaze of automatic machine gun fire I am never going to succeed! I dont want to be in a final where people havent turned up or something, I want to get there on my own merit, but seemingly, thats not enough! I dont think I want it enough, I'm not motivated to try really hard so I dont. I think subconciously I do care, and I do want to do well, but that the nerves get the better of me. Oh well. Good to see Travs who climbed well. Polish Dave took part too, and it was good to hang out with him for bit. There are loads of people whom I only see at BBC time each year so I might still pop in to watch the finals or something, but then again, if the weather is nice, perhaps I wont!

Vying for space in the qualifiers finished at 1230, but I had already handed my sheet in and was changed. The plan was to leave, collect the monster and come back for a pint, but the monster had only just arrived in town, so I left her to it. Hung out with friend Helen who had a stall there, and the sun came out. The foundry shop had a pull up comp, which I felt obliged to enter, and managed a paltry 30 in a minute. Thought I was going to be sick towards the end of the minute. Makes me wonder whether I would have done more had I not just been in a bouldering comp. I go for a beer with Dave Mason and Ben Meeks. James and Lauren, Dylan and Lucy all turn up, soon after followed by Lee. We go and see Adam Long in the photography tent. He has some amazing pictures on sale, and I am pretty psyched, but I cant think where they will go. Adam and I speak for the second time ever, and it turns out he is making offers on houses around the corner from me, and that Dense will be his lodger. This is a good thing. Adam is like a cool kid at school (although not 'the' school) who does cool things that I aspire to, and I think he has minor wad status in my eyes. There is an untapped rich vein of beta there. Perhaps if it ever stops raining I will get to put it to effect.

Ended up in the Vine on Saturday night. Had a mere three drinks but felt shocking on Sunday. Something to do with not eating properly all day and doing exercise and then drinking. Ah well. Back to the tor this week, and I cannot wait! Anyway, check out this post from Nige - fantastic stuff. This is what I will be attempting to put to use this evening.