SBS Plano Competition

“Crickets, crickets.” Those are the sounds from my blog recently. My work has been keeping me busy and honestly, making me stressed. So, I haven’t had time to write for a while.

Finally, I have a little air to breathe now and can update you with my latest big event. Over three weeks ago, I competed in the Summit Boulder Series competition at Summit Plano in Texas. I was kind of excited to compete again, but nervous as well since I hadn’t competed there before. Plus, it would be only my second time climbing there as well.

My expectations were not high for this event since there’s been a big gap in competing. If I placed, that’s great. If not, I wasn’t going to be disappointed, or at least not very.

The event was Halloween themed, so it was recommended to dress up for the competition. I haven’t been to a Halloween related comp before. I chose to dress up as Kim Possible from the Disney cartoon series and had fun creating my costume.

Comp Day

We drove to Plano the morning of the event. We met up with my husband’s aunt and uncle for dinner before the comp. Later, I realized that I was glad I ate beforehand.

The gym was loud and busy when we got there. The music selection was okay. Many people dressed up in costumes, and some were neat to see.

Then the comp started. The format was redpointed bouldering and no top outs, and it’s one I’m familiar with from previous comps. I was competing as an intermediate boulderer.

Some of the problems they had were fun. However, some were frustrating, and others were stupid, in my opinion. In general, the problems were harder than I’m used to at Norman. Although I should have expected that they would be harder because they’re set for competition.

One observation I had was that I didn’t care for how busy the bouldering area was during the event. The space between the two boulder islands and pads is narrow and a pain to walk through. The padded area around the island should have been larger. I was sorta concerned someone was going to get hurt either by a falling climber or rolling off the pads.

When we had to turn our scores in, I noticed there were a lot more people in the advanced category and not as many in intermediate. I thought I might have had a chance at placing. Nope, I didn’t place during the awards.

There was very little food at the end of the bouldering part, which was disappointing. I was kinda hungry at the end. So, I was glad I ate before competing.

Watching the bouldering finals was a lot of fun. I’m glad we stayed for it. However, I might have strained my voice from cheering and yelling.

We drove back to Oklahoma the next day because I had an event that night to work.

A few days later, I talked to one of the routesetters from my gym that helped set for the Plano comp. He admitted some of the intermediate and even beginner problems were weird. Hearing that made me feel better in my performance.

So, that’s what happened at the competition. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to compete again. I do want to, despite the last two not being as fun as I’d like them. I’ll have to keep my eyes and ears open for the next one. Until next time, happy bouldering.