Nothing is impossible

This morning I realized that I had a text message written at 9:30 last night which read, "I think I just tore my Achilles, at the hospital now."

Indeed, Tim did tear his achilles 95% in ballet class last night and will need surgery, which can't be performed until the swelling subsides. It looks like he will be out at least a few months. He is upset and in a lot of pain despite painkillers. We will need to cancel our performance May 5th at the Carousel ice show and also the Lake Placid competition in August.

We are thankful this happened now and not a few weeks ago before Chicago ... but it seems we are due for a string of good luck at some point to counteract the bad. Our plan was for Tim to test 3 more dances this summer so we could move up to Gold next year but it doesn't seem likely we can do that with a shortened season. We could stay in Pre-Gold another year and/or do Championship. But really it's too soon to even strategize.

I am trying "positive thinking." After the past season I know that nothing is impossible.
Terri

...

New skates ... $1,800
Coaching ... $8,000
Ice Time ... $10,000

Skating our best and winning a silver medal at Nationals ... Priceless

Final Round

All things considered, we skated well in the final round. The Portland group shouted "TNT are Dynamite" as we took the ice. We did two nice lifts, didn't fall down while spinning, and did the twizzles in the midline step sequence (and the rest of the sequence too). We felt the program was expressive and connected. From the crowd reaction I know that they felt it too.

We are happy with how we performed, and placing so well against so many really good and experienced teams is a bonus considering we might have withdrawn only a couple of days ago. I really enjoyed performing today and look forward to relaxing and watching the other Portland teams rock.

Some day we'll remember this and laugh ...

Laughing with Paul Harvath (above)

We had only one 20 minute practice today in the evening, so we spent the day coming off last night's high, resting, hydrating, stretching, etc. We got to the rink and were horrified to find that Tim had left his hard guards on, and that his blades had rusted! In last night's excitement he simply forgot to wipe them off and put on the soft guards.

We panicked a little but he tried them on the ice and didn't feel anything. Our practice was a bit shaky but I think we were just reacting to the stress of the rust. Tim said he felt a bit of pain in his hip as well. I was coughing at the end of the program due to the residual effects of the cold, but we did make it through a decent run-through. We just need to get through tomorrow, please please please.

Coach Anthony gave us kudos tonight regarding how far we'd come, saying I should be happy to have a partner who just keeps going through all kinds of adversity (I am) and that Tim should appreciate that I've been his anchor through the entire season.

Now it's time to get some sleep.

A very, very long day

So first, the important part. The initial round is over and we are in second place (!)

We won the starlight waltz, but more important than that, we got 2 first place ordinals on our blues (and ended up third in the dance, although second and third were very close). After struggling all season with the dance and skating it poorly at sectionals, we skated it the best we possibly could. I was so happy with how we skated it that it was easy to smile during the starlight. During the starligh we almost ran into the wall on the first pattern 3 turns - (adrenaline, I think). Other than that it was a great dance. I felt we danced both dances, and that was our goal.

John Dowding told us the difference between Sectionals and now was amazing - we look like a different team. I am so glad we worked with him at Sectionals; without his help I don't think our blues would ever have evolved to this.

Trivia - I did have to borrow Molly's bra due to leaving mine in the hotel room. OK, that was unnecessary information, but why not? It was such a long day I'm surprised we didn't have anything else go wrong. We woke up to snow on the ground, had a practice in the morning, ate lunch, rested at the hotel, had our official warmup, watched the gold dance event, then finally skated our event at 8:45 PM. All in all, a very long day.

The pre-gold dance group is very competitive; the other 5 teams are all very good skaters and all have prior competition experience, so we are thrilled to be sitting in second place going into the final round.

After our event we had trouble finding the Portland group for dinner, mainly because we didn't have GPS (we didn't have the address, just directions). See my blog from yesterday, I am lost without GPS! By the time we got there close to 11 PM Tim was starving and I just wanted dessert.

Tim is happy he never has to do the blues again. Little does he know that it is now my favorite dance and I want to compete it in the Lake Placid open event this summer - NOT!

I am now in the hotel's business center typing this. Kiyomi and Neil (who are in first place in our event) just walked by and burst into laughter. They always see me in here when they walk by. I think they believe I don't have a hotel room but that I'm actually living in the business center! I guess it's time for bed ...

Lost in Oak Brook

Finally, here we are in the Chicago 'burbs. Without the GPS system I think I might get lost, even though I've driven to the rink and back to the hotel several times now.

We arrived yesterday and practiced, then practiced again at noon or so today. After a half hour Tim did not look well. He has been fighting the flu. The good news - his hip is not bothering him. The cortisone shot seems to have worked. The bad news - he is really tired and sick. He is drinking pedialyte because he is so dehydrated. We just barely made it through the second practice. I skated a practice tonight by myself just to check out the other rink while Tim slept.

I am starting to cough but I'm ignoring it. I must get through the end of the week without being sick because really we need at least one of us healthy.

I think we will both be happy just to stay vertical during our dances now. This has become an endurance test and not a skating competition for us.

Murphy's Law

Cortisone shot over ... Tim now feels like he has the flu. The hip is sore from the shot. I hope the flu symptoms are just from the shot and anxiety and not really the flu.

I've been packing. Let's get this show on the road before something else goes wrong.

(Oh no, I just realized we skate our final round on Friday the 13th. )

Last practice

We practiced today for only one session. Actually it all went well despite our lack of recent practice and Tim's injury. Plus Tim's cold. Oh yeah, and the end of my cold. He is getting the cortisone shot today ... I hope it isn't too awful. Talk about taking one for the team. Yikes.

So after a year of preparation it's down to the wire this season. We discussed not even going to Chicago this morning because of the injury, but unless Tim has a bad reaction to the shot it looks like we will be leaving Monday for Adult Nationals. We are looking forward to getting out of practice mode and competing - it feels like we've been prepared for a long time. I'm also looking forward to a nice long rest afterwards and having time to spend with Perry and finish up some house projects.

Injury Report

So here it is Adult Nationals Eve, and not a creature is skating because we have tendonitis. Crap. Or as Kianoosh says, "crappier than crap." Tim is getting a cortisone shot which makes me nervous. I mean really, we aren't going to the Olympics here.

We haven't skated since Tuesday and cancelled our Carousel exhibition last night. We'll skate tomorrow and see how it goes.

Let us eat cake

Thank you Carousel Figure Skating Club ...