My original plan for her this year was to wait until the club had their meet (February 2012) before she would compete. IMO, this would allow her 5 months to become a better skater before dealing with the competitive side of the sport. After 2 months of seeing her greatly improve, hearing from other skaters and parents on how this particular meet was an excellent choice for a skater’s first competition, and asking her if should would like to try it out, she/we decided to register for it. Things never go as planned. As it turned out, 35 other skaters from our club would also be attending, so there would be plenty of familiar faces there, making it easier for her (and us).
A quick note about the meet. The fact that many people considered this meet to be an excellent first meet is that it is a ladder meet. This means that no matter your age, you are seeded based on your best time submitted. After each race, skaters are re-seeded accordingly. This allows skaters to feel like with each race, they have a chance to finish first, since the other kids in the race finished their last race with a similar time as their own.
Although she wanted to go to the meet, it was scheduled for the same weekend as her birthday, and she really wanted a birthday party. This meant that we had to work things around so that she could go and still have the party. It also meant that the party would not turn into a sleep-over like she had hoped, which was disappointing for her while making me happier (I’m sorry, as a father, having your house invaded by 7 little girls for a whole night is not high up on my enjoyment list). After all birthday plans were finalized, all that was left was to plan for the meet.
With the meet location almost 2 hrs away from where we live (remember our club is 1hr from our home), we decided to go up the night before and stay in a hotel, so to not have an over-tired little girl at her first meet. Before deciding to stay over night, I had talked to several parents about what they have done in the past. Several commented that the meets their kids didn’t perform well at were the ones they had to wake up early and drive a long time to get there. Not that I think my daughter is a top caliber speed skater and having her a little tired might make the difference between finishing 1st overall or not, it was just easier than dealing with a grumpy little girl at 5 am and later on in the day. Those of us with kids know that there is a line that they all pass at some point in the day that turns adorable well-behaved children into grumpy-crying-rude-we-should-have-stopped-having-kids-before-you creatures. I love my kids, but there are days that I don’t really LIKE them. So a hotel was booked.
On the day of the race we arrived at the rink at 7:30am. To our surprise, we were not the first from our club, not even close. Once the coach came into the change room, she announced the warm-up schedule. Being that my daughter is a) young, b) not fast and c) all races went by fastest to slowest, she was put in the last warm-up group. That gave us over 1 hour before she would go on the ice. For those of you who don’t already know, most rink’s change rooms are not too big. Add to the fact that there were 36 skaters from our club in one room, ranging from the youngest skaters to the masters group, throw in the fact that there were parents there helping their kids out, the room was over full. This meant that we had to plan our getting dressed accordingly, and once the racing started, things would clear up a bit.
Nearly 3 hours into the meet (includes arriving and practice time), my daughter was stepping on the ice for her first race. Leading up to the start I kept reminding her to have fun and try her best. I also told her that if she fell, get up and keep racing until the whistle went. I think I was more nervous than she was. One good thing about this race was that her coach’s daughter was in her group and competing with her. This gave her someone to stand and sit beside (read: talk to) on the bench when getting in-place for the race. My daughter’s first race went off nicely. She didn’t fall and she managed to finished 2nd (out of 4). She also had a Personal Best time. Yes, I know this was her first official race, meaning no matter what time she had, it would be considered a PB, but her time was nearly 3 seconds faster than when the club tested her (which was the time we submitted for this meet). She came off the ice all smiles, and I was there to greet her, all smiles. Success!
With nearly 160 skaters participating in the meet, we found out that it would be a while before she would race again. If anyone has ever been to the Cataraqui Community Center, you know how cold it is. It seems that when the center was being built, nobody took into consideration that people may want to sit in the stands and watch, and those people would like to feel a little warmth. Because of this lack of thinking, the heaters were installed too close to the ice, and they couldn't be turned on or the ice near the boards would melt. That meant those sticking around and watching the races would have to endure being cold (very cold). The change rooms were very warm, but you couldn’t see the races from there. We decided to hang out in our vehicle between races, let her relax away from the others while playing with some toys she brought, have some “healthy” snacks, and stay warm.
Nearly 2 hours later and she was getting back on the ice for her 2nd race. Again, the coach’s daughter was in her group, and these 2 little girls we starting to become BFF’s. Even though they practice together twice a week, there isn’t much time to chit-chat on the ice, so friendships really aren’t built. Spend a whole day together in the change room and on the ice, friendships begin to blossom. For her 2nd race, they added a 5th skater to the group and this time though, she didn’t have as good of a race with her falling several times and finishing last. Albeit she seemed disappointed with her finish, she still came off the ice smiling and commenting on how she fell. I mentioned that I liked how after she fell she got right back up and kept going. Focus on the positive.
Her 3rd race was better than her second, as she didn’t fall, but her time was not as fast as her first. You could tell that the day was starting to wear on her, but her spirits were still up (thankfully). She raced against her BFF again and finished behind her for the 2nd time, with her friend having a PB on that race. Now, competitiveness is a healthy part of life and although the 2 girls weren’t saying much, their eyes lit up when I mentioned that my daughter was down 2-1 over the 3 races to her friend. Now I’m wasn’t there to cause problems or to say that I think my daughter is better than her friend, but giving them both a little incentive to skate a little faster is good.
Knowing that there would only be 1 more race and that my daughter had celebrated her birthday the day before the meet, my wife and I had brought in a cake to share with all the club. It also turned out that there were 4 other club members who were celebrating their birthday in November, so this became a club celebration.
Either it was knowing that it the last race for the day, or the sugar rush she got from the cake, or the fact that she was racing her friend again and wanted to beat her, my daughter came out strong. She was leading the group as she started her 3rd and final lap. Unfortunately, right around the start line, she had a little fall allowing 2 skaters to pass her and ended up finishing 3rd, still ahead of her friend. She came off the ice saying how she was leading and was close to winning the race, but wasn’t upset that she fell. Although the times weren’t posted immediately, I later found out that with the fall, her time was a little slower than her PB set earlier, so we will never know if she could have beaten it. I did tell her that she had a chance to beat it and to skate like that at her next event and she would get a new PB. Give her something to strive for.
As the day ended, she wanted to go to the awards ceremony, not because she thought she would win, but to see what it was like. With this type of meet, awards are given out based on how much a skater has improved since the previous year’s results. They then brake the skaters into groups based on birth month. It make sense and really favours the younger kids, as they are the ones who make great improvements (with their times) from year to year. As expected, my daughter did not win her month, since she hadn’t competed the year before, but 4 other club members did win their respective months, making this a successful meet for out club. All in all, 25 skaters from our club finished the day with new PB’s, with 4 skaters officially braking the 60 seconds barrier in the 333 m races, and 1 skater going under 60 seconds in the 500 m races. Well done to all.
After doing a little shopping (my daughter had birthday money to spend) and having some supper, we finally embarked on the 2 hr drive home, arriving later than my daughter’s typical bed time. She did fall asleep as we were getting close. Expected after the eventful day she just had. For the record, mom and dad were also very tired and didn’t stay up much later.
Gah! I wrote a long comment when I got home from speed skating late last night and then it got lost on the interwebs.
ReplyDeleteMeet days are LONG days. It's a lot of "hurry up and wait". We have a few under our belt and now know what to bring to help pass the time. Sounds like she did a fantastic job!!! I think as parents of speed skaters we are way more nervous than the actual speed skaters :)