ABS REGIONALS

Regionals was okay...

It was [supposed to be] set up like nationals. It was an "onsight" competition which is where competitors had to attempt each climb without any prior knowledge to the climb or sequences. They kept competitors in an area called "isolation" where we were cut off from viewing the climbs and the specators. Phones and electronic devices were prohibited. There was a boulder to warm up on, bathrooms, a table of food, and the rest of the climbers to hang out with. Each climber was called out to climb in a certain order. Once we were called, we had 5 minutes to figure out and attempt each climb. There was a 4 minute resting period between each climb, and there were 6 problems to attempt. Climbers were called from the youngest age categories to the oldest, so I knew I would be in isolation for quite a while...

Well.... I don't know what the problem was, but I was in iso for about 7 hours. Yes... SEVEN HOURS. There was a boulder inside the isolation area to warm up on... but there was no set schedule (like they have at nationals) so I did not know when I was climbing... so I didnt know what time to start warming up. I took a couple naps, read some of my book, ate a lot of bananas, talked to a lot of people, and complained a lot of boredom. Everyone was going crazy in there!!!

I mono-mealed on bananas for most of the day. I did this for optimal energy. Instead of my body focusing on digesting complex foods, it only had to focus on the simple digestion of bananas so it gave me more energy to MOVE!!! For breakfast I drank "nanna milk" which was 5 bananas and water. While I was in isolation, I ate 9 bananas. And since i was in there later than expected, i brought dates just in case, and i ended up eating quite a few dates as well. ACTUALLY the dates started many conversations. "What are those?" "What do they taste like?" I ended up sharing quite a few!!! People LOVED them!

I soon had a whole group of climbers surrounding me while I talked about raw veganism. People asked questions and I answered delightfully. I explained our biological diet and how every species has a biological diet. I talked about the digestion of different foods and how cooking destroys enzymes and nutrients. It was really fun to share my diet with them! They all were pretty open about it and they said they never "thought about it like that." After my conversation with them, they got up and grabbed fruit from the fruit table. Success. =)

Anyways, back to climbing...

After about seven hours, i was finally up to climb!!! I felt pretty strong and totally solid for the most part. I crushed a couple of the climbs first-go. One took me 2 tries and the other 3 were too ridiculous to finish.

I ended up placing first. I got an invitation to nationals. BOULDER, CO is where it is... IM PSYCHED!

I need to seriously start training now!!!!!!

Here are some pics from the comp:

a few people who stayed till the end... we made it through the everending isolation !!!!!!