Talk about one-upmanship. At 8 weeks and 1 day post PAO #1 I actually went skating, which it turns out was foolish since I could have done some damage. For this iteration, 8 weeks and 1 day means I am on an airplane to the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships in Spokane for 10 days, where I will be trial judging singles and pairs for the first half and then just being a spectator for the second half. It has been a long time since I've been able to just be a spectator at a skating competition, so I am looking forward to the second half.
Trial judging is tiring and stressful even for those who are not on crutches. There will be a lot of walking involved (from the arena to the critique room, up and down narrow steps inside the arena, outside in snow/ice) as well as a lot of sitting on not-so-comfortable arena chairs. I sometimes think I might be a fool to be doing this. I know some of my fellow hippies would call me crazy, but I think I am ready for it.
I am taking both crutches and a cane. By this time in the healing process for PAO #1 I was down to just a cane and I hope that is mostly the case, but I want those crutches for backup this time. The hotel has an indoor pool and a fitness room so I am hoping to carve out enough time to exercise. There isn't much time to leave the arena during the day so trial judges often subsist on candy, hot dogs and pretzels - arena food. As a vegetarian, the options are even more limited. I've packed protein bars and trail mix.
In any case, it promises to be an exhausting 10 days, but I am happy to do it. My judging schedule for the rest of the year will all be sans crutches: Adult Sectionals in March, Adult Nationals in April, several non-quals over the summer, and then whichever qualifying competitions I'm assigned to in the fall. It will be nice for my judging peers to finally see me at a competition without a cane or crutches this season!
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