The littlest one places third

I am a little delayed in writing about the Mundials. I blame it on Kenny for getting me sick and making me feel miserable for the last few days...and on the new job I just started on Monday.

I competed on Thursday in my weight division. Not having watched my weight in the slightest, I still only weighed in at 115 in my gi. My first match was against Karen from Lloyd's. She pulled guard, I stood up, broke her guard open, passed it, took her back and bow and arrow choked her from the top in something around a minute and a half. For some reason, my lungs were burning after that quick match but I ignored it trying to get ready for the next match against the girl who won last year, definitely the best girl in the division. She ended up getting a bye in the first round because her opponent dropped out. I performed really poorly, felt super hesitant and slow and unlike myself the whole match. I ended up losing by 2 pts. I felt like crap and had to go lay down under the bleachers for a while hating myself and trying to get my lungs to relax...that took a while. I don't know what was wrong with my lungs, maybe I didn't warm up as much as I should have. I'm not sure if that was what affected my second match or whether I just sucked because I sucked. But either way, very uncharacteristically, I decided I would do the Open Class the next day (I usually won't fight anyone over 150lbs). But I was pissed.

In the morning at the hotel I was still pissed but also didn't feel like competing anymore. I packed my gi anyway, but had pretty much convinced myself that I wasn't going to compete. When I walked into the venue, the excitement was palpable. The first person I ran into about 10 feet inside the door was a female purple belt from Reno that I met at Pan Ams, Kelley Weatherford. About 30 seconds into my conversation with her, her enthusiasm rubbed off on me and I was DEFINITELY getting out on that mat!

I was the only girl from the Pluma division to do the Open Weight. I won my first match against a girl from the Medio weight class with a single leg takedown, I won my second match against a girl from the heaviest weight class after taking her down TWICE with single legs. The third match was against another girl from Medio and she ended up pulling guard and I was able to take her back towards the end of the match. My last match was against a much larger girl from Finland and I ended up losing 2-0. It was a tough match and although I think I made two crucial mistakes which each could've individually cost me that match, I will admit that I'm not too angry with myself for third place! I'm happy! I am so glad I went through with it!

A quick congrats to Ryan for his third place, Val for placing second in the Women's Brown/Black division (so fantastic!), and to Addie, Ana, Tammy, and Hillary for all winning their divisions!!!

The Fifty/50 guys did really well too. Anthony won a couple matches then got robbed by some bullshit reffing. Andy and Rich both looked tough winning their first matches! Next year it's ON!!! :)