British Team Trials, Liverpool

The team trials were held at Awesome Wall, Liverpool on Sat 27th November.
At the competition I felt very nervous, I didn’t feel very confident because I felt it had been ages since I had done any lead climbing because I had been sent home from school on Monday and had been in bed ever since then. I was seventh to climb on my first route which was a slab. I route planned and watched the demo and then watched 3 climbers climb and then warmed up again and then came up to watch another climber and then it was me. I spotted where the crux was and watched climbers struggling to get past it. I worked out exactly what to do but when I started climbing I felt I had no energy and when I got to the crux I couldn’t do what I had planned. The hold was really horrible and I couldn’t get my right foot high enough. I tried a few times and then asked to come down. I was really disappointed with myself, that I had not gone for it and had asked to come down. I just wanted to go home.
I pulled myself together and got quite psyched for the second route although I was shocked to find out I was first on it. Again I watched the demo, but I had been watching the older category doing it earlier. I felt I climbed this well, I tried really hard but came off about a third of the way up. I was pleased with my effort but thought I must have been the worst in the group. I decided to go and eat lunch. I was 8th in the group at the end of the two climbs. I got joint third highest on the second climb which was better than I thought. I then found out the top ten climbers go into the final and I wished I hadn’t eaten my lunch. I guessed it would be the pink route and so I had a good look at it. We all had to go into the bouldering area downstairs and wait. We then got to come out and look at our route. I was right it was the pink and so I planned it again. We then had to go downstairs and wait to be called. I was quite nervous but really ready to go for it. When I came out I saw that the second clip was moving but no others were above it. I found the climb quite tricky but okay , but the wall was quite steep. I got to the triangle but couldn’t get over it and came off. I felt I had done okay. It ended up only 2 other climbers got beyond this point and a couple to the same hold. I didn’t feel my day was good at the beginning but by the end I feel I had gained lots of experience, including being in isolation. All the climbers above me were a year older so hopefully I will do better next year.

The results for other climbers were, Angus 1st, Rachel 2nd, me 6th, Ross 7th, Calum 9th, Megan 11th, Alexander 17th.

McGeek Session

Today I had a session with McGeek. The McGeek squad were meant to have a fitness session with Eleanor but she has a virus so we had an extra hour before McGeeks session which was quite good because I was tired from last night. When I told Neil I was tired he splashed water over me to waken me up. Neil had a chat with me about the GB team trials in Liverpool next week and then we did routes on the main comp wall. We tried the white, purple and black. The skin on my fingers was really thin and sore so I finished at 4.

On Friday night mum and I drove to Dundee to take part in the second Avertical Wall bouldering comp. I had to do 20 problems. There were lots of different types of boulders and I had a great time. I started at 6 and finished at 8.30 and we left to drive home because I had a session with Eleanor and McGeek the next day. I found out in the morning I had come first. Wowee!!

Yesterday Neil Gresham came up from London to coach me and my friend Angus. Neil decided he would like to take us for our training session on my climbing wall in our garage. We spent ages discussing it first and he ate lots of scones my mum had made. When Neil saw my climbing wall he said he really like it and we spent about 2 hours stripping off the old routes and planning new ones. Angus and his dad arrived when we were doing this and Angus helped out too. Mum and dad’s friend Gary arrived with his son Jamie. Jamie is is a climber too but he and Gary went off with my dad to have some chilli.

In the end we had set 16 new boulder problems. Neil said we would be having a competition between the three of us and was very strict about the rules.

First we started off with traversing the wall to warm up. We tried the problems board by board, it took about an hour.

We climbed until 9 o’clock and I was very tired. Angus was too but when Neil stopped for something to eat with my mum and dad we did a bit of extra climbing with Jamie joining in.
At 10 o’clock everyone went home apart from Neil who stayed the night. I will see Neil again at the weekend because he is coaching at Ratho.

Neil on my wall

This is Neil trying out one of the boulder problems we set on my climbing wall.

Me on my wall

This is me on my climbing wall trying out one of the boulder problems.

Me falling off my wall!

This is me falling off a difficult boulder problem!

Award for Talented Sports Performer

Great news today. I got a grant from Midlothian Council. My Mum & Dad applied to them for help with all the travelling we do to competitions and stuff and we were lucky enough to get a grant! This will really help as we will be going to Dundee, Liverpool and Newcastle over the next month. Thanks to Tommy Goldie, Community Recreation Officer at Midlothian Council and Mc Geek and MCOFS for help with filling in the application form.