USAPL Battle on the Border Recap

I was looking forward to this meet for a while since it is only the second USAPL meet I’ve been in. The week prior to the meet was my spring break, so my friends and I went to my Lakehouse, A.K.A. Dickhouse. It was dubbed “Dickhouse” due to the large amounts of sausage that were present the first few times. I spent the week maxin’, relaxin’, and tryin’ to eat as much as I could. On Friday my friend Dylan, who was also at the Dickhouse, and I started our drive up to Charlotte. 69 miles out Dylans car decides to break down around six o’clock. After this point everything that could gowrong WENT WRONG. The car broke down, then we had to get a tow truck to tow the car to a shop (which was closed), then we got a taxi to the closest rental car place — which happened to be the Greenville, SC airport, then we finished the drive up to Charlotte. In other words, it was the worst fucking day of my life. I fell asleep that night a little after midnight.

The morning of the meet Pat (another friend who would also compete in the meet), Dylan, and I ate some quick breakfast and were on our way. I will give you guys the recap of what happened to me, I won’t do Pat or Dylan any justice if I try to tell their story. So I went and weighed in and took care of some loose ends and I started to warm up. My dad drove up to the meet and gave me some encouragement in the warm-up room. As I warmed up the people at the meet couldn’t have been any nicer. All of the guys there were very respectful and courteous. My first attempt was 505. I have found the first squat of the meet is the most nerve-racking, but I got my first attempt no problem. The second attempt was at 534. I got real amped up for this one. Usually when I get ready for a max effort lift I begin to tear up before I approach the bar because of the adrenaline. One of the judges said that I had the most passion there for squatting. I nailed it. It felt easier than 505. My “limitless reserves of strength” gave me the courage to go for 570. With my dad saying go for it I decided to go big. Well I got into the bottom of the squat, got on my toes, and failed it miserably. Realistically I could have gotten around 555, but I went for the big number instead. Woops. 


2 hours later after the Bench Only flights (which I am not a fan of) went, I was ready to blast my pecs. My opener was 358. My previous 1 RM was 368 and I crushed 358 like it was no problem. The next lift was 385. It felt really heavy. I got it about half way back up and my arms gave out. I attempted it again, but I just knew it wasn’t gonna happen. I wasn’t too excited to bench at this meet because in training my bench was around the same as my last meet. I had to reset it. But the shopowner and his son… that’s a different story altogether. I had to beat them to death with their own shoes. Nasty business, really. But, sure enough, I went on to the best lift ever. The deadlift.

Eight hours had gone by since my first squat attempt. I think everyone there was exhausted. I hit 562 pretty smoothly. I proceeded to go for 585 and failed it on two attempts. The third attempt actually came up higher than the first one. The meet was over. I didn’t do as well as I hoped with a total of 1,455, but I still won my division. I was so excited to show off my 70’s big shirt to the crowd to get in some free advertising, but instead in the locker room peeing into a cup while a grown man looked over my shoulder at my tiny dong. I was lucky enough to be drug tested. I came back up to find out that I had won first place. I gave a nice little cheer. I was happy. The end.

———-

So, essentially, AC had a weird meet. The week leading up to the meet may not have been ideal for eating and lifting, and then the day before the meet was a complete disaster. This battle of the border meet was quite popular, especially with the Bench Only division. It apparently took over three hours to get through all of the benching. Furthermore, it is hard to coach yourself on your attempts, and one should be more conservative than not. Because of the large jumps that were made, AC was unable to have some big PR’s like he is capable of doing — he will turn some heads at his next competition, I’m sure. Nevertheless, he still did well and won his division. And I’m proud of him, because he’s my beeeeeeest friiiiieeeeeend.

A guy named Steve that AC met at the meet (who also competed) was kind enough to film, edit, and post his lifts on YouTube. Thanks, Steve.