I'm going to start by saying that I cannot believe that Sidney is starting her 5th year of competitive climbing already. It has just flown by. The reality check is that she has 7 more years of eligibility in youth climbing if she continues to do it.
So, in our region, the first USAC comp is still a month away but last Saturday was the 2nd Annual Tacoma Throwdown at the Tacoma Vertical Club. Sid competed in the Open category. I was not there for most of the session but showed up during the last hour to do the scoring. By that time, Sidney said she was maxed out and wanted to be done. We did our little dance and in the end she kept climbing and snagged her highest climb of the comp on her last eligible try. It turned out that she really needed it because she came in 3rd place and won $150 but only edged out 4th place by 10 points! Let that be a lesson to all you climbers out there. If you have time, there is always the possibility to improve your score. Not giving up was the difference between winning $150 and nothing. Pretty much what separated the top 4 women climbers was 1 route. That's all that separated them, so it was very close. Sid was stoked to win some dough but more importantly, she learned a valuable lesson about competing. Oh, I forgot that she loved her HUGE check, too. It was a great day all around.
