Fresno Weekend Summary

So Carrie and I rolled into downtown Fresno at about 7 o'clock on friday evening. We were both surprised at how ghost-townish it was. We didnt see a soul on the streets. We got to our hotel room, and we were conveniently told over the phone that most rooms have a microwave, but upon arrival it was upgraded to "no rooms have microwaves." Annoying.

John arrived at around 1 am. I continued to eat food (no water) and chill in the room. I had the hardest time sleeping.

We walked into the athlete's briefing at 830 sharp and that took all of 5 minutes.
Then we had weigh-ins. I tipped the scales at a whopping 162. So that put me in the novice lightweight (165 and under) and at the bottom of the middleweight open class (155 1/4 to 185 1/4.)

I was pleasantly surprised by the venue- Fresno High school had me a bit skeptical, but overall they had a nice setup.

The show started an hour late- the crowd was being told that the athletes weren't ready, which was complete BS, we were all backstage pacing wondering what was going on.


Open middleweights came out first. It was a solid lineup- there were some real good competitors in that class. I dont have many clear pics so I'll show what I can. Being at the bottom of a weight class is always tough- but I think I held my own. I dont know where I placed.

Something new for this show is the 60 second free posing routine- which is basically your chance to be on stage alone to go through the mandatories in whatever order you choose. Kinda different. But seeing as I consider posing one of my strengths, I relished the opportunity to display my physique.



Then I jumped onstage with the novice lightweights.
So in this class I placed just outside of the top 5 at #6- which is I felt was rather poorly judged. I'll do a whole separate post on the breakdown for my rationale as to why I feel I should have been higher.

After prejudging we grabbed some food and headed back to the hotel for a nap.

Then it was time for the night show- Where each competitor gets to do their own 90 second routine. I been so busy doing cardio that I basically threw something together last minute. I took a few cues from Kai Greene (the hand over heart thing) and the crouching thing from Dorian.

There was some really bad posing going on. I mean like horrible.

Then it was my turn.


I think people were so happy to see some quasi-decent posing that I got random applause at random times- which was cool with me.
Sorry about the shaking- hope you dont get seasick- hahaha.

Here's where the gut-wrenching part of the story happens. So after posing with the novice class- they called out the top 5 backstage- 23, 25, 27 (which was my number) and called a few more. I was really juiced because that meant I'd be collecting a trophy. The stage hand then handed this list to the MC, who then handed it back and I could see that he mouthed something like "not this guy" and crossed it out. Unfortunately I was that guy crossed out.

This was a big blow- one because I knew I had a few of the guys beat, and two because I went from top 5 to 6th in a matter of 10 seconds and it was a huge letdown. My jaw is still sore from the clenching. This is where the brick wall talk becomes really important. Time to take my own advice haha.

So Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler was in the house- and he was giving free autographed photos to all the competitors. Took a few shots with him.
As did Big Medium John:

And (extremely small next to Mr. O) Carrie:
So back to the hotel we went- where we celebrated the way only meatheads on a diet can- with egg white and protein shakes! This was my first time drinking straight up egg whites with protein powder, but I was sold!

Looks sketchy!

Cheers!

Down the hatch!

So the drive home was HOT. I was rather dejected. But there was no time for that- staight back to the diet- straight back to cardio. No time to dwell on it.

We returned to a very sunny and very warm Emeryville. What better way to lick your wounds than next to a pool and out in the sun?

Oh ya- technically I didn't leave Fresno without a trophy--

clearly I did not. ;)