A lot of my posts recently have been quick ones… just a few notes and then a photo or three before signing off again.
Maybe it’s a sign of my life, right now… that everything’s moving too quickly, and that my free times seems to be monopolized by the gym, socializing, or just melting out and soaking into the couch after an insane day in the office.
Even in that world, though, I’ve been good about making time to appreciate nature, and the world around me. Writing long blog posts isn’t a spot that I can always spend time on… but thankfully stopping for a few minutes to appreciate a halo around the Sun is something I can do.
And, luckily enough for you, dear readers, I can share that with you. Including, of course, a quick Wikipedia citation for your learning pleasure.
Seriously! I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve been to a climbing comp… there’ve been a few here in Portland, since COVID, but… for one reason or another none of them quite worked out. And, let’s be clear here, when I say “a few”, I mean “one or two”, at least as far as I can remember, so… we’re not talking about a weekly occurrence here.
When I found out that there’d be a comp at my home gym? Well! Excitement abounded.
I… uhh… don’t really know where to go from here, with writing about the comp.
I mean, it was fun, right? All climbing competitions are excellent – they’re a chance for the gym to show off its stuff, for the route-setters to step up their game a bit, and go above and beyond the usual type of routes. For competitions, the climbs are almost always special in some way – the route-setters use non-standard holds, they add more “terrain features”, if you will, and they add a bit of style and panache to the gym for a few weeks.
It’s awesome, and fun, but at the end of the day it’s a bit hard to describe in a blog…
Instead, I’ll focus on how amazing it felt to compete again.
Yeah, the gym was absolutely packed full. And yeah, we ended up waiting in lines a bit longer than I’d normally be patient for. And sure, if I’d had more time to climb I could have placed higher (Ed Note: Ben actually projected it out, and if he’d arrived at the beginning of the competition, he could have tied for first in his division. Yeah, seriously.) but… at the end, I had a blast.
I felt strong. I felt good, and I felt like I’ve made some real progress in the past few years. Sure, I’ve gotten stronger… but more importantly, I’ve started regrowing into myself – restarting those parts of me that I’d powered down in the past.
I felt strong, I climbed strong… and I was strong. Both mentally and physically.
