Revelations

The A-Team is back, and what a difference a month makes..


After talking myself out of competition, I was gently nudged back into it. I don't do well with peer pressure and after Max texted Ilya and I that he was confirmed for Nationals we had a day of conversation weighing the pros and cons and decided to sign up as well. Ilya and I dug our heels in a little bit with each other: I didn't want to be the reason Ilya competed, and he didn't want to be the reason I didn't.


I'm competitive by nature and was worried that I would be in full 'win' mode. But Ilya said something that made me come to a realization: "How often at Green Swamp were you in the air worried about someone being ahead of you?", and the answer was "Never". I didn't give a crap about who was ahead. I was just focused on making goal, or even the first waypoint, or even just staying in the air. I was mainly looking for Ilya and Max when I was flying, but I do that up in New England anyways. Ilya said I also made a comment that changed his mind: "I'd rather regret that we did it than regret that we didn't." This chance doesn't come around too often, and we're going to be right there at demo days. Neither of us could envision leaving for Tennessee or staying at Wallaby knowing that the competition was happening so close to where we were.


I know my limits, I took a DNF one of the days at Green Swamp because I wasn't comfortable flying in the windy conditions and even though it bumped me to 19th, I managed to claw back up to 13th overall with an 11th place finish on the last task.


Comps are all about balance. Some days suck, some don't, but it all seems to even out in the end anyways. We're both relieved that we signed up so that's a good indicator that we made the right decision. I don't care if I come in 30th of 30, at least I can say I competed in the Nationals just once.