2009 Karate Nationals in Calgary

Originally I was going to post this on the karate blog which I contribute to… but it works better on this because it is a personal post and not a post about anything technical regarding karate… so here it is!

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Friday – 1:00 am : Time for bed, we attempted to pull an all-nighter watching Criminal Minds and Grays Anatomy to just head to the airport but couldn’t last. Flight is at 7:40am leaving Halifax, so alarm is set for 4:30 am. That should give us enough time to get there!

Friday – 4:30 am : Goddamn alarm… going to go feed the dog and play fetch with him for a bit before we head to the airport. Sooooo tired.

Friday – 7:05 am : In line at the airport. Air Canada people keep giving us attitude… must be because its so early or something…

Friday – 7:39 am : We just boarded… security took forever, more rediculousness. Oy. Well we made it on the plane! Next stop Calgary!

Friday – 8:00 am : Oy… talk about bad turbulence… the plane is going nuts!!!!

Friday – 10:45 am (Calgary time) : We landed! Alive!!! Now off to the hotel!

Friday – 3:30 pm (C-time) : Just had lunch and explored the hotel with some of the other members of the NS team. Signed in at the registration table and checked out who we’re seeded against… not that I know any of the people! Looking forward to a fun weekend, might head to the Zoo or something tomorrow since the black belt tourney is on Sunday

Friday – 11:00 pm (C-time) : The lunch burger hath done me in. Note to self: American-sized portions are unhealthy. Had dinner (starters) at the hotel restaurant, then limed with some of the other team members and then went for some drinks. 08:00 wakeup call tomorrow.

Saturday – 7:40 am (C-Time) : Woke up before the wakeup call, time for some breakfast then the training clinic at 9:30

Saturday – 12:12pm (C-Time) : Intense training with Yaguchi Sensei this morning on carpets. We learned Ji’in, which was great. Took some video as we split into two groups. Definitely a great morning of training! Now we are off to soak in the hot tub and then maybe the Zoo later on.

Saturday – 6:00pm (C-time) : Zoo was a lot of fun! Caught the end of the juniors tournament and now we’re getting ready for the banquet. Should be a fun evening!

Saturday – 11:00pm (C-Time) : Banquet was great, food was awesome and it was definitely a fun evening. Now to bed to catch some Zzz’s before the competition tomorrow.

Sunday – 9:00 am (C-Time) : Just got up, grabbed some muffins from Starbucks for breakfast, jumped in the hot tub at the top of the hotel for a few minutes to erase the muscle stiffness from yesterday and now to head downstairs for the tourney.

Sunday – 10:00 am (C-Time) : Tourney is fun so far. Got knocked out first round for kata because of a stupid mistake. Heian Sandan is definitely not my favourite kata right now! My own fault really haha. Ah well its all for fun! Up next is kumite.

Sunday – 10:30 am (C-Time) : Got knocked out of kumite first round as well, but I feel better about that than kata. I put up a decent fight but it all boils down to experience which the other competitor had more of. No hard feelings there, still to come is team kumite.

Sunday – 11:30 am (C-Time) : We got knocked out of team kumite by Quebec, but it was a good match. One of the other guys got a wicked Ippon on his Quebecois opponent, and while I lost my match it was once again so someone with vastly more experience.

All in all, it has been a great weekend and one hell of an experience. Looking forward to doing this again next year in Manitoba.

In the end, the girl’s team took home the Silver in Kumite, so congratz to them and to all of the competitors this weekend.