Alki meet,story and such !

The scene at Alki during my record attempt
DISCOVERED !! Mysterious 2 headed woman in Alki audience--when at Power page--note the 13th picture down...she is there watching the show ! WOW !! Call Art Bell !



Alki was almost magical..there were fine lifting performances..nice people, and a perfect day for the contest.
Pictures and more, ARE NOW at my Power update site (link is in my previous report below)
The drive down from Vancouver Friday at noon was marred by a 100 minute border wait in the hot sun...good companions like Nancy Carpenter and Jane Smith certainly helped me not be boiling mad at the "Why oh Why" of it all...we cranked Art of Noise and Peter Gunn with Duane Eddy when we finally got moving again...the road down was OK...slow in Everett and then killer awful down 405 thru Bellevue,Renton ...but we finally made it to the weigh in hotel,the Marriott Courtyard....pretty darn good hotel, I was surprised,great air conditioning,but a boiled cabbage smell in the air...well,can't blame that on the hotel..I think the town of Tukwila took off it's shoes,and we were smelling the towns smelly socks...

I weighed in at 300. (I'd been 316 or so when I was hitting those easy 551's in training)
Nancy weighed in 10 under her class limit.

We had a nice casual dinner in their "Charley's" Restaurant...I mighta been back up to 305 by the end of it...
burp !....toot...

During dinner Juana and Francesca came by our table and said the exit to the west Seattle bridge was closed and we'd have to go a makeshift route to the beach...man, what panic--turned out that the exit WAS open for us to get in..but the various websites made it so confusing the true details of the awful roadwork..that half the lifters did wonky re-routes to be on the safe side...

When we met up the next morning,the gals asked how I slept--and I said, "at the least 3 hours --the most maybe 4 and a half hours sleep"...but I coffee'd up..we all three had oatmeal for breakfast and headed to the meet...Jane drove to help me,altho I lived in west Seattle for many years when I was a radio DJ in Seattle,I now find myself just a bit uncomfortable being behind the wheel when driving across bridges..the West Seattle bridge is a piece O' cake but I didn't want to chance yelling, mommy mommy mommy mommy !!! in front of the girls. (of course I did do the drive over it easily on the way home)

The beach weather was glorious...Jane lives in Chilliwack BC and likes it,but the serenity of the beach made her feel like she'd found a bit of heaven...she was scheduled to compete..but a recent tiny operation hadn't healed and she didn't want to chance tearing the stitches and bleeding or having to start the healing process over again..so she decided to help Nancy and me with taking photos, gearing us up and coaching...she was a helpful and fun friend to have along --she wants to do ALKI,both bench n' dead next year ! meanwhile, she is carefully training for the IPF Worlds in a few months (3 lift,masters)

Nancy's flight was first up,about 18 women,starring Ita Pantilat a fantastic lifter for WABDL !--anyway, Nancy had one of the most consistant days ever,beating the WABDL Canadian bench record by 1.1 pounds all her 4 attempts were picture perfect..and she forged new ground..getting nearly 190 pounds on the bar (85kg plus chips)

The other women ranged in age from teens to 68 years old..some fine lifting in the first flight.

2nd flight was where the top men were..many of the WABDL stalwart and faithful were there..Joe Mickelson,James Crawford ( 710 pounds,soon to join the 800 club) and even 15 year olds and special O's--finally it's time for the masters...that would be me and 17 others...I was a cross between a clown and a mad maniac (Blue Meanies from Beatles Yellow Submarine?) --believe me, I am a nice guy and only want to make people laugh, but I get cranky before I get my opener in.

I swear and make faces of disdain,and one second later I'm mister nice guy..damn,It's a wonder Nancy,Bruce, Jane, Jody...all the people who help me at the various meets just don't leave me stuck half way into one of those shirts flailing for help...when the announcer mentioned (just before our flight)that there'd be some special martial arts and kettlebell demonstrations --I took it to mean, right then BEFORE our flight (I was mistaken) I made a total ass of myself by inventing, very loudly,some new OBSCENE words--and making the entire warmup area dip into their pockets for a 'cure tourette's syndrome' donation...luckily those demo's were AFTER our lifting--and they were VERY good too !

Time for me to lift...I get a very few warmups 225X5 315X3 335 X1--shirt, platform 490 UP and good (I see stars) I ask for 523 ...perfect hand off from Joe Gast and lift is good --then I do 534 +1.1 for the chipped record and get a nice 535.1 lift didn't seem too hard...why no 540,551?? well,maybe I'm doing Aberdeen in September,If Jody Cranston is .. I can stretch out the record breaking over time--

plus, if yer' Nancy goes 4 for 4 --ya don't wanna chance missing an attempt in front of the crowd when they've seen your nice 3 for 3--end with a perfect day !

We stayed for the womens deadlift we wanted to see 68 year old Winifred Pristell break the world masters deadlift record, and of course our favorite, Francesca Mangaoang pull some huge record breaking weights...we were NOT disappointed !

Trip back--

bad traffic.. some one else's accident tie up..

AND another nightmarish border line up...we cross the border,after 8:30 and it's RAIN on the Canadian side (how does it know which side to land?) The gals and I,are home safely (Mercedes,fixed and perfect-thanks J.R.) with great memories (except for the road) and 2 more trophies over flowing our premises...check site for pics.
up now...link below--unless of course,you already came from there..