I had a big weekend at the American Open Series 1 at The Arnold, in Columbus, OH. This was my 3rd weightlifting meet and it was successful again. I added 1kg to each of my lifts for a new meet total PR.
The weekend started badly on Friday when I got caught in a huge traffic jam. I was parked on the highway for over two hours. People were out walking their dogs. It was weird.
I stopped in Charleston, WV for the night at about 1am, caught some sleep, and then got back out on the road to Columbus at 8am on Saturday. My lift session wasn’t until Sunday at noon so there was plenty of time to rest and stretch.
The way the weight/age classes worked out I was one of two lifters, so all I had to do was complete at least one of each lift to get a medal. The other guy in my class was *way* stronger, so I was looking at the silver (which I got pretty easily).
That lift above was my final lift of the meet, a 101kg clean and jerk, and a PR. It was exciting.
The other best part of the weekend was spending time with my gym friends. The Weight Room is my home gym and the best place I can imagine for getting strong. Chris does a great job of preparing athletes to compete and I wouldn’t have been able to do this without him. Danny is the whole reason any of us go to The Arnold. He competes in Strongman and finished this weekend as the #9 amateur middleweight strongman in the world. The way he works in the gym is inspiring and I’m glad we’re pals. Wayne was my friendly nemesis for this meet. We had the same qualifying total so we were training like this was a head-to-head contest. I won, obvs., but he’s also 5 years older than me so he’ll probably mention that if he ever hears me bragging.
My next meet is set for April 14th in Dowell, Va., at the 2018 Virginia LWC Championships and Open. I’ll tell you how it goes.