Divisionals in June of 2019 in Cypress, Texas was an interesting competition to say the least. How the competition was run, Inspire Cypress where it was held, challenges during Speed Finals and the weather all made for a wild ride. It was an enjoyable experience, but it was particularly rough during my last run in Finals.
Since I did not have to be at the gym early for sport climbing qualifications, we decided to go to Momentum Katy to practice a couple hours before the Speed competition started. On my first run at Momentum, I ran an 8.84, which at the time was only two hundredths off of my personal record. I was very excited about this run as it showed that I was in peak condition for the upcoming competition. My last three practice runs were all consistent and smooth. After I did all four of my warmup runs, we decided to head over to the competition gym an hour and a half before the Speed competition started.
It was very chaotic at Inspire once we got there with music blaring, little kids running around everywhere, and stressed parents watching their kids attempting to qualify for Nationals in Sport climbing. I tried to relax and watched some of my Team Texas friends do their Finals round climbs. A number of them had amazing climbs and qualified to go to Nationals in Philadelphia.
After 30 minutes of watching my friends climb, I decided to start warming up. I had to warm up outside since it was just too crowded inside. It was humid and cloudy out with some light rain, but I knew that I had to get ready. After I warmed up with a light jog, stretching and some jumping exercises, I went back inside.
The gym was small for an event of this size and getting everyone to line up and settle down was a struggle for the Speed organizers. It reminded me of the horse handlers at the Kentucky Derby trying to walk the horses into the starting gate. After everything had been settled, we started running on the 15-meter wall. Unfortunately, the holds at Inspire Cypress are known by most speed climbers to be horrible and that’s not an understatement. Everyone coming off of the wall who hadn’t run on it before was complaining how they didn’t like the holds. But at the end of the day, that’s Speed climbing. Every wall has its quirks even if its been certified by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC).
Even knowing how terrible the holds would be didn’t help me much on my runs. On both of my qualifying runs, I had slips. The holds just weren’t conducive to climbing fast on the wall. Despite my fast runs at Momentum earlier in the day, I knew that I would not be able to achieve a personal record at this comp.
Even with the slips, my qualifying times were good enough for me to make Finals. In Finals, I ran a decent time on the first run, but as I was jumping up and down to warm up for my second and last run of the day, I landed in an uneven area of the floor mats and instantly felt a sharp pain in my right calf muscle. I didn’t know if at the time, but the uneven mats caused a calf strain in my right leg. I ended up doing the final run despite the pain, but I slipped at the very end because of the strain. I would have gotten first place at the comp without the slip, but I still ended up getting second which I was ecstatic to get given the circumstances and my injury. And, I was qualified for Nationals at Reach Climbing in Philadelphia.
I had four weeks for my calf to heal and to gain strength and perfect my beta for Nationals.
My dad and I decided that I should continue to train in Dallas for Nationals. So we typed Dallas into Google Maps and started driving through the backroads of southeast Texas to avoid traffic on I-45. Along the way, there was a massive thunderstorm and we got stuck right in the middle of the storm cell. We had to wait it out for 30 minutes inside a gas station for safety. There were even tornado watches out but luckily no tornadoes ever came our way.
Once back in Dallas, I could not use my right leg for over a week after the injury. I limped around and tried to do as many arm exercises as I could in order to maintain my strength. The injury eventually healed, and my coach allowed me to resume training for Nationals.
Divisionals was hectic, crazy, and worrisome after my injury. Overall, it was a good experience as I placed well despite the impediments, but I hope to avoid any injuries in the future. I was glad I healed from the strain quickly. It was a good lesson for the future to be careful while warming up in crowded spaces.