British #5......

Hi guys,

          I hope your all enjoying the summer holidays, I certainly am. I kicked off my summer by traveling down the Bristol for the JBBC. I traveled down as part of TCA Glasgow. It took us around 8 hours to get there and when we did everyone was shattered…  As soon as we arrived everyone took the bags out of the boot and into a locker. We were all really lucky because we got to stay in TCA Bristol for the night. It wasn’t too late when we arrived so after we all had some really nice pizza we went around and tried some of the easier problems.  Everyone climbed for about 20 minutes top. Afterwards we went around the centre and chose were we wanted to sleep for the night…  Rhiannon and I slept under this really big cave and Eilidh slept just outside it. The rest of the team slept further over to the entrance. Everyone really enjoyed their sleep. 

The next morning when everybody woke up we got some breakfast. For breakfast I had some fruit and a croissant, both were really nice. Because TCA was still open to the public we had to quickly pack away all our sleeping bags and pillows. Soon after that we all set out to the van and headed over to the comp. As soon as we got their it was roasting so we sat outside before we done out warm-up just to cool down a bit. Rhiannon and I went upstairs to the locker area and done our warm-up there. As we were doing our warm-up we could see the whole centre and it was massive. All the walls looked quite the same as TCA. We done our warm-up for maybe 10-15 minutes. 

Not long after we done our warm- up we found ourselves starting the competition.  We all had 8 problems in total for the qualifiers.  All of my qualifiers were pretty easy and I managed to flash them all, along with 8 other girls.  Only 6 were meant to go through to the final, however the 9 of us went through as there was no way of splitting us up.   

After qualifiers we went out for some fresh air and a snack. I had a flap jack and bottle of water. It was roasting inside so it was really nice to be able to sit outside for a while.  It wasn’t long before we got told that finals would be happening soon so we had to head over to isolation.  In isolation I kept warm by doing some jogging on the spot and some light stretches.  As there was  9 of us the first 3 people had to go out alone, I was one of them. 

 I went out to try my first problem and I kept falling off the first move.  I didn’t worry about it though.  As finals went on my second problem rolled in, I found that one slightly easier although I kept popping off at the bonus.    

My third problem rolled in quicker than I expected and I went out , on my first attempt  my foot popped, but I quickly got on my second attempt.  

 Then after finals we went outside to sit for a while.  My results were quickly posted and in the end I came 8^th but overall in the 3 rounds I came 5^th.  We went back outside and waited to watch the older category climb.  We went upstairs to the balcony and got good seats.  The finals were really interesting to watch. 

We went out to pizza express for dinner and met with some of the TCA Bristol team. There was a balloon festival on and lots of people were dressed up as characters.  I saw 4 hot air balloons.  After that we went back to TCA and slept in the centre again. I was really tired and went to bed at about 11:30.  We woke up the following morning and I had my breakfast, it wasn’t long before we were saying good bye and setting off to leave.  Alan said if the weather was nice we would stop off and do some outdoor climbing. The further we got into the journey it was looking less promising as it was starting to rain.  As we got 3 hours into the journey the weather calmed down and we stopped off at Longridge. 

 It was really easy to get to and the problems ranged from easy to really hard.  As I had competed the day before my hands were a little sore, so we never tried anything too hard, we tried a lot of the easier ones.  We stayed there for an hour or 2 before setting back of on our journey.  We managed to get back to TCA Glasgow for 7pm.  My dad came and picked me up.  It was a great trip thanks to TCA for letting us stay and supplying breakfast.  

 Also thanks to Alan and Stuart for their support and encouragement. 

Thanks also to 8a-agency my sponsor, and to Urban Uprising for their support.
Photos courtesy of Sandy Carr.