Highland Champion!

[Rooks]

Awesome work man. Looks like a damn good time.

[Book]

Aw, you guys rock. Thank you very much for the support.

Sorry, I haven't been around the board much lately. I've been dealing with a minor knee injury, so my workouts have been sporadic, and my diet is still just awful.

A couple of quick updates about the Highland stuff. I competed in the second games the following weekend, although this time I threw in the Master's division (40-49 years old). I had a wonderful time, and managed to win against some really good throwers, although they were all significantly older than me. The true star though was a 60-year-old guy who beat me in one event, and wasn't far behind me in the others. A serious beast. I'm told he is the 7-time world champion in his age group.

This is when my knee got to its lowest point. It swelled up quite a bit, with a fair amount of pain when flexed. It was a bit stiff after the first games, but doing the 11 events at the second games, it was definitely telling me 'enough'. It's probably at about 80% now, so what did I do? I signed up for one more games, mainly because it looks like a lot of fun. It's an Armed Forces Challenge, where I get to represent my old branch (Army), and it's down close to where I did my MOS training. I've even given myself an extra day in the area so I can explore the old Civil War battlegrounds including the famous "Battle of the Crater".

I was always so fascinated when I went to my local highland games by the mens heavy events. You must be a boss! A Scottish boss! Congratulations!

Heh, not bad for a French Canadian/Irish boy. Of course... my mentor in the games was Italian, so what are ya gonna do?

That's awesome man! Congrats on the win! I competed there the 3 previous years and had to miss this one due to injury problems during the year. I'd love to come back and compete with you there next year!

That would be awesome. I think they'll bump me up to the Amateur World championship event, even if I'm not really at their level. We should definitely talk, though. We have a bit of a training group... how do you practice?

Congratulations! You made all that look effortless! I'm headed to the NH Highland Games this weekend so this thread caught my eye. I'm not competing this year but that's the eventual goal. I've got the same Black Watch tartan and sporran. Now if I could perfect the 12:00 landing I'd be in business...

Awesome! It certainly can be a blast, particularly because the people are so awesome. And NH is a pretty good area to find people to train with. And yeah... it's a pretty huge rush to get a 12:00 with a challenging caber.

OMG I didnt know things like this existed. That looked so fun. Congratulations!

At this point, there are Highland Games all over the place in North America, and in a lot of places around the world, especially northern Europe (including Iceland) and Australia/New Zealand.

Awesome work man. Looks like a damn good time.

It's definitely a buzz. I think we could do a little better job of making it friendly for people to watch, but it's already pretty awesome.

[msuroo]

How did I miss this before?! We have a big Celtic Festival in my hometown every year (complete with highland athletics), and I've always loved it. Congratulations!