Maura Skates Again—the Icicle Invitational

On Saturday, December 3^rd, Maura skated in the Icicle Invitational at Navin Arena in Marlboro, Massachusetts. It was her second competition and the first one she has skated in away from her home rink in Rockland. Maura did very well and had a great time.

We got up early and left the house before sunrise. We wanted to get the rink by 7:00 am because we were told that we should check in an hour before Maura was due on the ice and she was entered in the very first event of the day, Pre-Alpha Stroking, at 8:00. It’s about an hour’s drive from our house in Weymouth to Marlboro. We allowed extra time in case we got lost. We didn’t so we were at the rink by 6:30. We ended up waiting in the lobby for an hour before we could register.

Once we were registered everything seemed to go smoothly. Jennifer got Maura ready without any trouble despite having to share the locker rooms with the hockey players who were finishing up their games. Maura skated in two events, Pre-Alpha Stroking and the Pre-Alpha Individual competition she did in October. She skated very well in both her events, at least to my untrained eye. She even managed to do a good job keeping her arms up, which is one of her biggest problems. When she got off the ice after her individual program Maura had a big smile on her face. She knew she had done well.

Maura took first in both of her events. It was not a big surprise. She was the only skater in her age group at her level so she wasn’t competing against anyone. Nevertheless, Maura was pleased with her two gold medals and proudly wore them for a photograph on the podium. If she keeps skating Maura will likely get more of them, and not always because she is the only skater in her group.

This might have been Maura’s last Pre-Alpha competition. Maura’s coach, Jenny, was happy with her performance. On Monday, at Maura’s lesson, Jenny said that if she works hard over the next few weeks Maura can take her next test and move up to the Alpha level before she competes again in February. Now that the local public rink is open again for the season and Maura has more chances to get on the ice I expect Maura will improve more rapidly than she did in the fall because of the extra practice. Her mother and I will encourage her to keep working hard off the ice but she doesn’t need much encouragement when she has the chance to skate, just a ride to the rink.