After 7 weeks of training and dieting (which in bodybuilding terms is a pretty short prep period) I stepped out onto the stage yesterday at the NPA Midlands Champs.
With my spray tan having turned almost black overnight (the subject of great hilarity and many oompa loompa jokes :) I set off to Stratford yesterday morning with my wonderful friend and Phoenix Pro manager superstar Sarah in tow.
We were greeted in Stratford by the rest of what turned out to be an absolutely incredible support team, and made our way backstage to start applying make up and taming hair. Being one of those people who tends to look significantly worse the more make up I put on, I must say I really enjoyed slapping on various layers of eye shadow, glitter and mascara, and the atmosphere backstage was friendly and fun, with a slight hint of nervous apprehension.
The tense moments before the show begins!
My class, ladies trained figure (or 'untrained figure', as my pal Jimmy misheard!) was one of the bigger classes with 8 entries. Due to some very hotly contested men's novice classes, we weren't called up for our first round until around 5pm, by which point, having been nibbling on tiny bits of chicken all day, I was feeling somewhat spacey, all be it surprisingly relaxed! That was, until, I was about to set first high heeled foot on to the stage, at which point my heart rate shot up, my legs turned to jelly, and I wondered whether I would make it up the T walk, let alone be able to hold any poses!
Now, when I first thought about entering a bodybuilding show, I really didn't have any appreciation of how hard it is to hit the poses well. Presenting your structure, musculature and leaness whilst minimising your weaknesses is a real art, particularly under the pressure of hundreds of eyes, spotlights and adrenaline. It is safe to say that this is an art I have yet to master!! But this show for me was really just about getting out there, doing it and enjoying it, and that's what I did.
Once the whole class had performed a series of quarter turns and compulsory poses, it was then time for a quick dash backstage, change of bikini into a more glitzy affair, and back on again for our individual routines. This for me was by far my biggest challenge, as anyone who knows me well will know that I am not a great extrovert, nor a poser, and definitely not someone who would happily strut about on a stage, on my own, in my BIKINI, in front of a ton of people!!! But therein lay the real reason for doing it... to step way out of my comfort zone and find some new boundaries to break through...
I did my routine to one of my dad's favourite songs, 'Walking in Memphis' and was really pleased that I remembered the whole thing. The sound of my friends cheering and hollering from the audience was absolutely amazing and reminded me how lucky I am to have them all. As I struck my final pose, there was a huge sense of relief that I hadn't fallen off stage, broken another ankle, made a fool of myself etc etc, but also a sense of, 'what next?'... because whilst tough at times, I have really, really enjoyed my bodybuilding journey. It's been awesome working with a coach I greatly respect, former British Champion Annie Ottey, I have honestly loved the discipline of hard dieting and the challenge of training hard on low calories, and I've met some fantastic new people along the way. I've also learnt some new things (particularly in the kitchen where I formerly spent as little time as possible!) and am now back to my pre ankle break training loads for pretty much all lifts.
A lot of people have asked me whether I will compete at bodybuilding again and I think the answer has to be yes, although with a holiday coming up and a fairly manic coaching schedule, it's unlikely to be again this year. Like everyone, however, I do need a goal, so this morning I embarked on the next challenge, hopefully a 26 mile run in London next April. Whether my ankle will ready for a marathon this early on remains to be seen, but I'll give it my best shot - after all if you don't start, you'll never know what you're capable of..
So, all in all a fantastic journey. But now I'd better crack on and do what I love most - helping the folks at Phoenix achieve their goals :)
But did I go from figure dream to dream figure? Almost :)
Char
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