Bastille Day: Epees in the Park
Saturday the 14th Salle New Bern hosted a Bastille Day fencing event in a beautiful park on the Neuse river. Those of you who remember me and heat related illness, remember that my heat management is awful. Or to put it in geekier terms, I have a single heat sink in my head, where I really need two double clan heat sinks in my legs. Should Woody 2.0 ever go into production, you can be sure this will be a design change for the better (so long as the engine, weapons, and armor budget holds out).
Honestly, I probably wouldn't have even tried to fence in this tournament, but my parents live so close to the event, and they have never seen me fence before. I set mom and dad up under a canopy, gave dad my camera and tripod and let them have their own experience with my world.
In my pools I won two and lost two. My first bout was against the tournament's only "C" rated fencer. It was two bouts later, watching him fence I realize that he was left handed. Bummer.
If you are interested, here are all of my results in this tournament.
Heat management in the morning was well, I had been super hydrating over the previous week and I literally sloshed when I walked. I was sweating well, I had plenty to drink, and the breeze from the Neuse was very cooling. After pools, I stripped down and cooled in preparation for the results and direct elimination. I came out of pools 7th out of 20, which is right where I like to be, and I got a bye in the first round. My first direct elimination bout was against as our luck always has it a fencer from my own club. It never fails. I ended up against Jim who came out of pools 10th. Jim started with my club but has moved on to get extra instruction from one of the local Maestros. What this translates into is Jim can take my lunch money on the strip any time and any place he chooses. It is a good thing. I don't get better if I don't have to be better, know what I mean. Plus as he puts it, as one of his first coaches, even if I lose against him, I win as a coach. Nice. :)
The first thing I noticed in pools was he was holding back and playing it safe. Against a better fencer this is a good idea, against me, it is a strange decision. All of his hits were within a three inch circle on the right side of my chest next to my shoulder joint. All of my touches were on random places from his hand to his shoulder, except for two hail Mary's on center mass. The score stayed close, and once or twice I even managed to tie up the score. The end result was he ended the match with a double touch 13-15, and my day was done. At first I wondered why he was holding back so much letting the score stay so close. It was a dangerous ploy as accidents do happen, and I might have gotten some surprise touches using the Daffy Duck effect. I had hoped he was simply conserving energy for his next bout, which is very smart. It was only later it dawned on me that he was keeping it close on purpose so my parents would get a good show. That was mighty thoughtful of him. I think I might owe him a beer for that.
After fencing I went off to dress down in the restroom. While there, I suddenly went from heat condition nominal to heat condition high. I don't know why exactly for at that particular moment I was wearing only my undies and a moisture wicking shirt. Either way, I got my shorts and shoes on in a hurry and got back out in the breeze. I knew there was a heat problem because suddenly my head starts pounding, my face gets very flush, and all the heat tries to dissipate out of my head, but there simply isn't enough surface area to do it effectively.
On the way back to the shade of the camp and the care of my "personal health care specialist". I ran into a school mate from elementary school and her children. When I found out that there was a fencing event in New Bern, I invited her to bring her kids so they could see fencing. It isn't like they can exactly watch it on ESPN's sport center. As I was finished fencing I was able to stand with them and talk about what they were seeing. I think it was educational, I don't know that they are clamoring to sign up, but at least they won't ever have to say, "What the heck are they doing?" <-- Someone asked my mother that exact question earlier in the day.
Of course there are pictures...
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| Bastille Day |
