04 / 03 / 2024
Before heading out to Siruana I received a text message from ex British Bouldering Champion Gareth Parry inviting me to compete in one of his Bloc Fest competitions. Since the comp was the next day it was a bit last minute and I had to decline. Strangely the invite coincided with a dream I had had the night before in which I was back in the competition arena. Goodness knows what Freud would have made of that, midlife crisis perhaps?
Anyway whilst in Siruana I had the crazy idea of entering a Moon team in the up and coming CWIF competition at The Climbing Works. After a few phone calls and text messages I had recruited British junior champion Molly-Thompson Smith, young talent Tom Newman, my friend and Climbing Works regular Bob Smith and some old has been called Ben Moon.
Since returning from Siruana work and family commitments have meant that my climbing and training have taken a back seat but in a token effort to prepare for CWIF I did squeeze in one session at The Climbing Works on Wednesday evening. After 3 hours of working my way round the hard and technical myrtle circuit with Bob Smith and Neil Mawson I was starting to regret my decision to compete. Both Neil and Bob were in excellent form. Neil was particularly impressive showing excellent technique and stamina on a hard circuit he had not climbed on before. I was pretty much finished by the half way mark but kept going just to keep them company. That was two days ago and I am still suffering. Oh dear! When will you ever learn?
CWIF tomorrow, just hope I dont let my teammates down.