Arnold Amateur Fitness 2008!

Hey Everyone-

Good news to report - I won the Arnold Amateur Fitness event. I was very surprised to take the overall as well. I was up against some great competitiors - Chantal Dicaire, the fabulous Sylvia Tremblay, and Valerie Brown Stephens.  All of whom I have competed with before and knew of the package they would bring to the stage. Lucily all came together for me in the end, as I really did not think I would be ‘ready’ to hit the stage once the show came around.  

The events all started on Thursday am when I experienced my first JanTana tanning session. The colour was amazing, but to put on the color - well, it was an eye opener.  Some things my husband should NOT know about this sport. 
After 2 coatings of tanner, it was time for the athlete meeting.  Best backstage, warmup area I have experienced in 9 years of competition. Especially for the fitness gals, having a place to warmup the routine is essential not only to perform well, but to reduce the likelihood of injury.

The evening started with the fitness routine.  I do not watch the other girls that go before me as I feel it clouds my judgment and focus before I perform.    I did do my performance as best I could under the circumstances but always feel that I could do better. The crowd watching was a little flat to all the competitors’ performances but perhaps that is how it is in the NPC??  I just like it when everyone is having a good time and gets excited while watching the routine round, as it gets the athlete pumped as well.

Next was the 2 piece.  Two series of quarter turns, and that was it.  Then the one piece - which was new to me, and I actually liked it.  After doing the routine round, you tend to relax anyways.  Standing is not so hard as flipping in the air…..but I digress.  Again 2 series of quarter turns and we were done for the night.  The night ended around 10pm and by that time I was ready to get some sleep. 

On Friday I was at the Muscular Development booth. What a blast these folks are!  So much fun, and interesting to talk to. They really know their stuff.  Triple H stopped by, Jose Canseco, Monica Brant was at our booth, and Victor Martinez was there as well.  There were just so many people there that it was really hard to keep track of them all.  The day basically flew by.  I got to watch the manditory routines of the Pro Fitness gals. I was so excited to see them in action, and they did not disappoint. 

By the end of the day, I had to rush back to my hotel to get tanned up for the finals of the amateur event.  It took a little longer than I had expected and ended up missing the women’s pro finals, however, I did catch the open routine on bodybuilding.com (Thank goodness!).

On Sat we had to be at the venue for the finals at 9am. We did our one piece and they annouced the top 5 in each class (fitness and figure).  Great I made top 5. I was really excited about that.

Then we had to wait quite a bit as the bodybuilding took almost 2 hours, before they were to announce the winners of the fitness and figure.

Returning to the stage in our two piece, they annouced all the placings with myself coming out on top.  Again I was surprised, and had to go up against Chantal Dicaire of Quebec (we are from the same Province too).  She wins all the time in Canada, so was amazed that I took the overall.   I am very proud to have achieved this goal. Now on to the next one of winning my pro card at the 2008 Canadian Fitness & Figure Nationals in Vancouver in August.  The rest of the day I spent at the MD booth, hanging out with the girls (so much fun) and having fun with the win.

The coolest part of the win was that I got to be introduced on stage at the night show of the Arnold Classic on Saturday, as well as meet Mr. Arnold himself.  During this time I was able to hang out backstage during the show, and meet all the pros (past and present) plus many other people within the industry.  I was truly in my element, and did not want this moment to end. 

On Sunday I got to eat a brunch with Arnold and have my individual picture taken with him.  Very cool.  I spent the rest of the day at the MD Booth until I was to and catch my flight back to Canada.

This was the best Arnold I have attended so far. (this was my 3rd arnold).  Hopefully next year I can make it to the arnold stage as a pro (ooh, that would too much!), or come back to the amateur event if they offer a pro card for the win. 

Talk soon,

A.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 8:07 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.