A Proper Thank You

I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone involved in the Arnold, either as a volunteer or a competitor.

I must start with Matt McNamara. Scott Shetler says that Matt is the man that flies under the radar and then comes in to save the day. That is the God’s honest truth. He is completely responsible for all of our kick ass electronics, arranging and rearranging the flight schedule and all of the floor planning with the Arnold people. His diplomacy worked miracles and he never missed a beat from setup to tear down.

Next on the list is Andrew Durniat. The man is a ‘Meet in a Truck’. He hauled all of the considerable equipment to and from his own gym. He called me in a panic the Sat. before saying that he needed a bigger truck! I was very concerned about him. I knew that he was going to expend a lot of energy setting up and that he trained very hard for this meet and I felt that he might not be energetic enough for his set. He said “don’t worry about it Lorraine, I’ll rest on the platform”. We are soooo very lucky he feels that way!!!

I have to thank Chriss Silverstein and Rick and Joey Carranza from IronWorks gym. Chriss is the connection to our sponsor – Tokey Hill. She called one day 5 months ago asking for some help with a meet – that meet just happened to be the Arnold. She is one smart, hard working woman who is now a part of kb sport forever! I’ll never let her go. She and her team of 2 worked so hard for the meet – the first to arrive and the last to leave. I can’t thank them enough.

Thanks to Ken Blackburn and Steve Cotter for the registration on their site – IKFF.net. Ken was responsible for medals and did a great job with that. His boundless enthusiasm can keep me sane in the most impossible situation! Also – he cooks the books with the best of them! (And NO- not financially. We are in a big hole with this meet!!! I meant that he can add up the scores and figure out the winners and I was teasing about the creativity - just sayin.)

Thanks to Tokey Hill for his vision – he will go down in the Arnold History Book as the first to have a venue for a kb competition. Mixing us in with the martial arts just seems rather natural too!

I can’t thank John Dale enough for just sitting down to registration/weigh in when he walked in and saw I had my hands full. He’s been around the kb scene for a long time now! His set looked great too! Another man just jumping in was Rob Goewey – we were very lucky to have him for setup and breakdown and just about everything else in between. Thank you Rob!!!!

A huge special thanks to our illustrious coach – Honored Master of Sport Valery Fedorenko and his editor – Eric Liford. (Does anyone out there really know what Eric does????) Kidding of course! They provided all of the judging staff and are completely in charge of rules, rankings and judging. It’s just getting better and better.

Which brings me to our judges! How can I possibly thank you enough for your considerable efforts! 10 solid hours of sitting and counting and risking embolisms from sitting still for so long!!! Without judges there is no meet and I thank you, thank you, thank you.

What am I supposed to do with Scott Shetler now? I have to behave with him online. It’s not worth getting up in the morning. How was I supposed to know that he can do 6 things at once and is an intimate friend of the mike???? Outstanding job there Scott, IGx will no longer be fun for me.

Special thanks to Doug and Bruce of the Arnold floor crew. They could have been maniacs that we just had to deal with but instead they were perfect stand up guys who made the impossible possible. I really wouldn’t want their jobs, I’m going to stick with drilling. It’s less painful.

Thanks, Cate Imes, for setting up this blog for us!

And to all of you who competed – thank you so much for coming and giving it everything you have on the platform. You are such a unique group and I’m so proud of all of you. I know that most of us train alone although that is starting to change. We need a place to give it all up and that’s the platform at a competition. There seem to be no egos in this sport – we are more of a community than a sport. You all cheer each other on with everything you have. I am so happy to be able to have the chance for you let it go.. I’m happy that this time it was at such a great venue as the Arnolds. I love you all and would gladly work to the bone for you. Thanks!

Lorraine