Last night I was sitting in the Colorado Springs auditorium watching the ABS Open National Championships. As I sat and watched, I kept thinking about where I was last year at that time. Last year I was in Massachusetts with injured fingers that were splinted and elevating a broken ankle. I was watching Nationals off of Alex David Johnson's webcam live feed, that was such poor quality I could only see when the climber left the ground and when they fell back on the mats (however I do appreciate the effort!) As I watched off of this live feed, I felt miserable. I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel for me. I didn't know if I could ever rock climb again.
Last night I was helping judge the climbs, so I had a front row seat to see some inspiring rock climbers compete. USA Climbing also offered an amazing live feed thanks to Louder Than 11! I got many texts from team kids saying that I was on tv...lol. This weekend I had competed in both the Open Nationals and the Citizens Nationals. My body felt strong and my fingers held up through all of the climbing. I was enjoying myself so much that I almost forgot I was out of the scene for an entire season.
This weekend I tied for 26th in the ABS Open National Championships. There were 42 women total, possibly a record for USA Climbing, and they took 22 to semi finals. Honestly I am bummed that I did not make semis. But if I look at what I have been through the past year, I feel extremely proud to have competed. My fingers cannot hold up to training for climbing just yet. Yes, I can climb and I can climb in competitions without pain. But, my fingers are still not 100% and I have to be careful. I don't want to be injured again.
Three points is what push me out of semis. Three holds. I know what holds I didn't grab and why. On problem #2, I got pumped before the lip. Lack of power endurance. On problem three I could not get past the 2nd hold, which was a bump move from one crimp to another on a 60 degree. Contact strength. These were the two things I could not train due to the condition of my fingers.
To be quite honest, I probably could have trained those things with tape considering I have been climbing off and on with no tape for the past month. But I was afraid that if I did train, the health of my pulleys would drastically decline to where it was last year. I never want to feel the pain of not only trying to climb as my fingers give out, and the pain of not being able to be on the climbing scene. This recovery process would turn into injury again and I don't want that. I would take the 26th place over my goal of top 10 again if it meant that my fingers would be healthy.
Overall the climbs were extremely fun and I was able to use a lot of the tactics I learned over the Pro Training Camp to help my overall performance. I also competed in the Citizens National yesterday, placing 3rd in the open below Francesca Metcalf (2nd) and Tiffany Hensley (1st). This was an extremely fun experience and again tested what my fingers are capable of at the moment. I feel that I could have pushed and won 2nd, however my fingers began to feel sore after 2 hours of climbing. So I stopped. Either way, this was an amazing experience and it was fun to compete with a few of my competitors from the Open.
Being in Colorado and having this opportunity to compete again is pretty emotional for me. It is awesome, it is frustrating. But I get to spend my time with some pretty great people and I look forward to the rest of my week in Colorado. Being here and never giving up is what it means to be breaking free.
Shoutout to Kris Peters, Kati Peters, Alex Johnson, and Josh Brown for opening up their home to me! Much appreciated and I'm psyched to be here with you guys!
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