Thursday, July 12, 2012

ISI District 1 Championships


On the weekend of July 1st Maura competed in the ISI District 1 Championships at the William L. Chase Arena in Natick, Massachusetts. She competed in two events at the Alpha level.  She came in 6th out of 8 competitors in both events but she was happy with her performance, and she had a good time, which is what matters the most.

Jennifer and I got up early and drove her to Natick twice. On Friday morning we fought traffic at rush hour to get there on time because Maura had an early ice time for her individual program. She was scheduled to skate at 8:40 am but she had to be there an hour earlier. She had a special treat—her grandfather came to see her skate (she calls him Papa). He lives in Florida and hasn’t had the chance to see her compete before. On Sunday we were back for Maura’s stroking competition. Maura skated even earlier than she did on Friday but it was an easy trip because there was hardly any traffic.

The truth is that Maura loves skating and she enjoys competing but she doesn’t care that much about winning. I think if she did she would work a little harder than she does. She has exercises to do when she isn’t on the ice but she never does them unless I bug her about them—not just remind her but bug her. It’s about as easy to get her to clean the cat’s litter box as it is to get her to practice holding her arms out for a few minutes so she can train herself to keep them up when she’s skating. I don’t expect Maura will come in first often unless she discovers that she cares more than she does now but if she is happy I am. She’s found a sport that she enjoys enough that she wants to participate regularly. It’s something she can keep doing for as long as it interests her. I’ll never be upset if she doesn’t want to be competitive.

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