SILVER MEDAL!!!!!

I'm really excited!!! I got a silver medal in the Cherry Blossom Open Tournament in Boyton Beach today!!!!! The tournament was pretty disorganized though. They were calling for registration and weigh ins to end by 12:00 for seniors and masters, so I left Orlando at 7:00 am to get there in time. It turns out they were WAY behind schedule. Weigh ins and registration went on until about 1:00 and My division, which turned out to be 240lbs to unlimited or Senior Men Open Division didn't start competition until 4:00. They called us to our mat around 2:45 so they guys in our division were thinking we were to compete soon so we all got warmed up, but we didn't end up playing until 4:00 so we all got cooled down again, just in time to actually get called to compete, in spite of that I still managed a silver medal. The guy that beat me (2x, in double elimination) was a black belt, he was a tall really muscular guy around 52 yrs old, he was a really nice guy and had good technique. I gave it my all and was beaten by a better opponent. It was the first tournament of the year so I feel I did real well and have a good base to build from. Because we stood around so much before our match I got really dehydrated and at the end of the tournament my biceps cramped up super bad. I could barely carry my stuff out to the car. The plus side was, after the tournament Sensei Doug Clark suggested the we go to this really cool Japanese Buffet next to the location of the tournament, my arms were so sore I couldn't hold my plate and I could barely bring my hands to my mouth, HAHAHAHAHA, so I didn't eat much at all. Boyton Beach is about 3 hrs south of Orlando, I drank 3 bottles of water on the way home and about half way home my arms loosened up and the cramps went away, pretty funny!!!!! To sore to eat at an AYCE sushi and Japanese buffet, HAHAHAHA!!!!!

Well I promised an official weigh in from this tournament but the scale was digital and just said EEE.EEE (error) I laughed and said hey that's about right 333, the weigh in guys laughed pretty hard. So I don't know if I've lost any weight but I can definitely tell that the walking has paid off, I never felt winded or exhausted in any of my matches and I quickly recovered after each match and was ready to compete when I was called for each subsequent match, I felt really good until after the tournament when I cramped up...I will be sure to drink more at the next tournament. I did accomplish one of my New Years Resolutions though...I set out to win at least one match this year and I already won two!!! So now I'm changing that goal to win two more matches!!!!

Here's a picture of the medal I won today. Doug has pictures of me with it at the tournament posing with the Gold Medalist. I'll post the other pics when I get them from Sensei Clark.