Rhode Island

[FrankH]

After a soggy drive up to Rhode Island, it turned out to be a beautiful day for throwing. The Am A results are up; congrats to Sam Grammer for a hard-fought win. Not sure how the women and B's threw, but I saw a bunch of great throws from across the field. Masters was a small group of 5. Don Stewart was awesome, hitting 19 feet in the WOB (standing! ) and just a fraction of an inch short of 50 feet in the stone. His LWFD was over 73 feet, HWFD was 50, and heavy hammer was 90 feet. Keep in mind that Don is coming up on 49 years old-- unbelievable.

I had a solid day; 39 stone, 59 LWFD, 37 HWFD, 73 HH, turned a good-sized caber and 16 wob. No sheaf, and master's didn't toss the braemar stone, which was an ugly meteorite-looking 28-pounder. It was great to be on the field with Don and the rest of the masters competitors, two of whom I think were relatively new to the highland games. Great throwing with you guys.

LONG drive up and back, but a good time and the weather came through for us. Thanks to Kate Mason for ADing the Games (while throwing) and for doing a great job, and to the volunteers who pitched in to do some judging and scoring.

[hmckenzie]

It was a great time, well worth the drive! I'll second a thanks to Kate and Sam for putting on a great games, and showing us southerners some great hospitality! Thanks guys!

[Largemilk]

Yes indeedy. 14 hours of driving later, we arrived in Rhode Island. Insane drive but, yes, well worth it. The day was loads of fun with sunshine blessing the field. It had a definite feel of a true Althletes games. Five classes and all working in harmony! Small field space with everyone making a concerted effort to keep everyone safe. The bleachers on either side of the field housed a great audience who got to see some awesome throws including a great caber compeition!. Kate and Sam were awesome!

The B class was fierce with a few of the guys more than able to compete with the A's and the bug is alive in the McKay family with Taylor McKay in our class and kicking butt while his 7 feet tall brother, Sean, "The trebuchet" McKay looking on from the A class. The under 200, or whatever weights they were, "light weights" were no light weights when it came to their throwing abiility. Any athlete tossing a 42lb for distance past 40 feet is a giant!! And so it went. Me, I did OK about par with no break out numbers. I can't tell you the order of who won because after the evening before drive, I seemed to have short term memory loss when it came to remembering everyone's names but The numbers were awesome.

Have to come up with a better plan for getting there next year but I'd definitely do it again. I can see this games becoming a premiere event on the east coast specially if Kate continues as the new AD- You rock kate!

The MOA and it's passengers made it safely back to MD/DC/VA in the wee hours of Sunday morning and I don't know about the rest of you but I slept well until mid afternoon. Thanks Mike (and Holly) for the MOA and all it's comforts.

[DD17/20]

Frank, it was good to see you again. I'm glad the weather worked out for you and all the other guys who came such a long way. The numbers aside it was good to be pain free after several years of injuries. Combination of weight loss, avoiding those Max Effort days in the weight room and a steady diet of Yoga have worked so far. Good luck the rest of the way. Loon Mtn in Sept ? -let me know.