It started on Friday. After (hopefully) not failing my exam, my parents arrived. We caught up a bit, before I had to leave for check-in and a posing class by Jaime Baird. She is such a sweet (and beautiful) woman.
Nicole Nagrani was there too, which was a special treat.
Jaime had us to do our walk and front pose for her. It cleared some nerves, and she also she gave us a little critique. Being in front of an audience isn’t too new for me, but I am use to making eye contact with the audience or, for a play, looking up, over the audience. In this competition, you look down, and only down, at the judges. So that was new. And she said that I reminded her of Ali Rosen:
I take that as a compliment.
Friday night ended with three Jan Tana-tanning sessions by my wonderful husband. (I think for next time, I will be making an appointment with the show tanners.)
I woke up at 5am for another tanning session and to get ready. There was a competitor meeting at 8am, and I wanted to make sure I was at the venue in plenty of time.
One prep secret: I wore a wig! I had bought the wig for my wedding, but I opted for another hairstyle (also with faux-hair though … it’s genius.), so the wig had been sitting in my closet for a year. After going through competitor photos, I realized everyone has long hair. I was just about to purchase clip-in extensions, when I remembered the rug. I know I would fuss about my hair all day, and with pre-judging and the night show, I knew my fine hair would not hold up. The wig work perfectly and literally saved hours off prep and worry!
My coach told me to go to the venue hair and make up ready, but when I got to the venue, there was a room full of tables and mirrors. I felt a little awkward just sitting there while everyone else was getting ready. Two women, who happened to be figure competitors, noticed my awkwardness (and shyness) and be-friended me, looking after me the whole day.
I was granted number 93, and after a morning of practicing posing, it was finally time for me to get judged. I was trying to remember what Jaime had said the night before, and what my coach had told me, but when it came time to step on stage I blanked on everything. The next thing I knew I was walking off stage.
While my family wanted to go to out to eat, I opted for going home to rest. I was exhausted and food and water deprived. I barely made it home before passing out for an hour and a half.
The afternoon brought one more tan touch-up and back to the venue. The hubs, my brother, my pops and a good friend, John, joined my mom for the night show. I was a lot more relaxed, and even joined my family to watch the fitness girls perform (those girls are crazy amazing!). I was supposed to go on after intermission, but the show was running so quickly that they skipped it, and it was my turn to go up again.
Sadly, I did not place. I was not first call-out during pre-judging (the judges usually call out who they think the top five are in a class, and therefore compare them even more side-by-side to determine top order), so it was no surprise I didn’t win.
There were a lot of novice competitors. My height class alone had 10 girls, and the other class had atleast 15. In fact, the woman who won the overall novice bikini class was from my class, so it was very competitive.
But it was such a great experience. I am looking forward to my next show, which I think I will be in March (and in my hometown back up north). Even though it’s five months away, I can’t relax too much. I will probably hit the gym hardcore by the weekend. I asked for a judges' crit to be sent to me, but I already know I have to tighten up ... a lot!
I want to write a blog about the days after and eating. So that will probably come in a few days, but for now I will leave you with a photo and my presentation video from the night show (I stumbled a bit on the turn, but practice makes perfect and I know I will get better and more comfortable the more I practice and perform).
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