Sunday 17 January 2010

In TOP 10

Some of you already know of my hobby. It's archery. I like it so much that I pursue it although it takes quite a lot of time and in spite of the injuries it causes.

Injuries? Well, there is tis nasty looking black-purple-yellow-blue spot on my left forearm from the bow string. But I have learned to hold my bow properly, so that should not happen any more in the future. Good.

Then there was this bruise on my left hand, caused by the rest constantly hitting against it. Convinced that I am clumsier than everybody else (I still think that I probably am), I tried to learn to shoot more correctly untill my son and my Main Squeeze figured out it was actually a left-hand rest, put together in a way that enabled you to install it on a right-nad riser. Only that it then bruised your hand. The joint between the thumb and the hand which had constantly been beaten before is almost healed now. Good.

And then there is the most inconvenient injury of all - my nose. Yep, NOSE.

I must be doing something wrong and hte string scratches my nose so badly that it begins to bleed. Almost at the tip, slightly to the right. Doesn't look nice. And once I must have pulled the string and let it hit the nose almost directly and then there was this bleeding little spot in the middle of the right side of my nose. When it healed, it was sitting there waiting to meet the bowstring so it could bleed again. And again.

Anyway, I still decided to go to a competition. It counts for the Slovenian Cup and there you can also qualify for the national championship.

Some people say you should definitely go to competitions. I knew I was not good, but I thought it would be interestiong. Fun. So I went.

And if you're in good company - my Main Squeeze, my daughter, her boyfriend (also competing), my niece, ma MS's niece, others from our club - what more could you possibly ask for?

Want to see some photos? Here:

A woman getting ready to shoot. Yep, me:



And shooting:




The competitors checking their hits and writing the scores while the referees are monitoring and helping if necessary:







And... Oh dear!


My finger is on the OUTSIDE of my nose, pleeease! My poor nose! Protected with a strip of adhesive bandage, but still! My daughter jumped at the opportunity to take a photo of me while touching my nose.

I needed to score 370 (what? points? rings? rounds? just 370? help me with vocabulary, please) out of 600 to qualify for the national championship. I didn't believe I would and I didn't. That was not the point. I wanted to see what such a match looked like from the competitor's point of view. And I liked it.

I won't put any photos here that I do not have the permission to - let me just tell you that my daughter's boyfriend was much better. He scored 453! I think that is very good! Well done!

True, we were both on 10th place in our category, only he left 10 competitors behind and I left none. Well, next time, maybe.

And there are other competitions. I can still qualify next week or on 13th February. Next week is too soon, but IF I feel I'm good enough in the beginning of February, I just might attend that other one. I'll see. I'm not going to that competition as I went to this one when I was probably the most light-hearted archer on scene. And, as I said - I liked it.

9 comments:

  1. Good for you for competing! I would not be brave enough to do so. I think it's a very cute photo of you touching the side of your nose. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice job! :P
    Your target was funny to watch because you never knew what to expect ;P

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank, TeresaR! I don't usually like being photographed.. but I actually think that one came out quite nice...
    dear Poppy, but the holes in my target were distributed most evenly - it was very much balanced, compared to the rest of them...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey, good for you. When I was in high school, one of the sports for girls was archery. I liked it much better than the team sports because I was always one of the last to be picked.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh man, that sounds like so much fun. That is definitely on my Bucket List. And I can assure you that I would probably have 10x more bruises that you. I seem to attract them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would love to know how you hurt your nose? Boomerang arrow?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bowstring, Mo, BOWSTRING! How? Np idea! When I figure that out, I will be the champion!!! :D

    ReplyDelete
  8. I admire you for doing this - I once did some archery at a Girl Scout camp, but of course, was much younger. Keep it up! (But hope your nose keeps out of the way . . .)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good for you Minka, trying something knew and then competing at it is so incredibly (I want to use the word "cool" but I don't know if it's quite appropriate) difficult. Congrats on being able to do that! :)

    ReplyDelete