This was my first National level event, I signed on last-minute for it, since it was in Daytona, Florida – a fairly workable 4 hour drive from Tallahassee. I was originally scheduled to lift on Saturday morning. I was contacted Thursday and informed I would be lifting on Friday night, instead of Saturday morning. On Friday morning, I dropped the kids off at school and drove directly to Daytona. Brian Chambers was down with some of his athletes, and stepped up to help me try to put together a total.
I weighed in light at 79kg/174lbs and had a great snatch performance (at the time) going 90kg/95kg/100kgX but ran into trouble on clean and jerks. Clean and jerks went 115kgX/118kgX/118kg – incredibly close to bombing out. The scrutiny of judging at National level meets is definitely strict, as it should be. I did a poor job of feeding and watering myself during the drive, and the leadup to the meets. My anxiety and nervousness were sky-high going into the meet – another good reason to sign up and do the meet.
Snatch: 90kg/95kg/100kgX (198lb/209lb/220lbX)
Clean & Jerk: 115kgX/118kgX/118kg (253lbX/260lbX/260lb)
Total: 213kg
I walked away with silver for the total and bronze in snatch and also bronze in clean and jerk. I believe I had 9-10 other competitors in my age/weight class for that meet. This was the first time I really had to push for position in a meet.