My Weekend at the Palm Beach Pro-Am!
Hey everyone! Well, I am back home from the Palm Beach Pro-Am! Wow, what an exciting and extremely packed weekend! We flew into West Palm Friday afternoon and got our rental car and then headed off to our hotel. After checking in and taking a few minutes to settle in, it was off to meet with Shannon and Rob for my "assessment". I tried on my suits, did some posing, made some last minute adjustments, and sat back for my critque and final instructions! Then it was over to the host hotel lobby for check in and an interview with John Hawley from Musclepaparrazzi.org. During the filiming the interview, the lobby and lounge was crawling with competitors and vendors. As I was leaving, I noticed a familiar face on the bench outside the hotel, and took a second look to realize that it was Valarie Waugaman! Oh boy, I was so excited to see her face to face! She is tall and beautiful and extremely friendly! Well, that concluded my night and it was time to get some sleep and prepare for the competition.
Saturday turned out to be a pleasant surprise for me. The Amatuer division began pre-judging at approx 10 am with the Pro’s showing up backstage to join us at about 11. What an amazing experience, sitting right next to me applying make-up and styling hair was Gina Alliotti, Natalie Benson, Danielle Hollenshade, Mariza DeGuzman and Zena Collins!! WOW!!! These women are actually next to me?!! I was in awe. They were so friendly and sweet. The fitness ladies were in the room as well and they were exuding personality and enthusiam! There was so much comradie among this group of ladies, they truly do support and help one another even though they are competing against each other. I was somewhat starstruck to say the least! It was fantastic! And just as an added little bonus to the evening, I was awarded the first place trophy for the Open Medium Division!! Unfortunately, I was not the choice of the judge’s for the overall title, however I was the crowd favorite for it and that was more than enough to make me one happy camper!!! I ended my competitive evening with an interview with Isaac Hinds for Bodybuilding.com and some friendly p.r. with the ALR Industries spokesmodels and sales staff at their vendors booth. They are an awesome group of competitors and all around people with some awesome products!
I finished off my weekend with a photoshoot this morning with fitness photographer Dan Ray of Dan Ray Photography. It was windy as heck but we were able to get some great shots. Dan took over 300 photos!!! He is a spectacular photographer and an all around sweet guy. Hope to shoot with him again very soon! As I was finishing up my shoot, I ran into Isaac shooting with Julie Lohre (how aweful that must have been for him!). She was looking beautiful and congratulated me on my win.
Thanks Dan, John and Isaac for your time and your interest in me and a special thanks to all of my bodyspace friends for your support and for leaving me all the nice comments and messages!!
Dixie
October 22, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Congratulations! I watched the video and especially liked when you said about serving as inspiration to others. Something like, "Hey, maybe I can do that, too." Wonderful interview. Wishing you continued success.