Well my final week was almost over. It was Friday
afternoon and I was staring at myself in the mirror
and putting the finishing touches on my posing routine
when my father yelled down to me Layne, they're
here!
Bodybuilding.com Writers
I then went outside and greeted fellow
Bodybuilding.com writers Anthony Church and Jay
Cholewa (Big Red), along with fellow message board
members Pete (Petefox) Camillo, Tony Baldwin, and
Vince LoGiudice. That's right, they came from, Rhode
Island, Boston, Maryland, and Ohio to stay at my house
for the weekend and watch me compete. After they got
settled in the first order of business was to watch my
copy of Pumping Iron, then it was dinner time.
Dinner
They
had pork tenderloin and potatoes while I continued to
munch on low sodium chicken breasts. At 9 p.m. I went
to take my polygraph test which I passed. I then came
home and talked with the guys a bit before they went
out on a food run. Pete stayed behind however and we
talked for awhile and discussed pre-contest dieting
and training strategies.
I must say it was very
refreshing to hold a conversation with people that had
a similar or greater amount of knowledge about the
sport of bodybuilding and that weren't completely
ignorant. At 11 o'clock I did one final run through
of my posing routine and went to bed totally focused
on the task that awaited me the next day.
I awoke at 4 a.m. to start consuming my carbs and
potassium. I ate a bowl of raisons, popped some
potassium pills and went back to sleep. I awoke again
at 6 and repeated the previous meal. At 8 o'clock I
awoke for good and once again ate more raisons with a
few bites of a protein bar. Jay, Pete, and Tony were
awake at this time so I fixed them all some scrambled
eggs for breakfast while I continued to munch on my
raisons.
And I'm Off
After breakfast I began packing my bag with
all my goodies (dream tan, pam spray, hot stuff, etc)
Tony, Pete and I then left for the Henderson community
college theatre (location of contest) for the
competitors meeting. When I arrived I was stunned to
find out several of my competitors actually new of me
and had read my articles this made me feel pretty
good!
John Gray
I also met fellow Bodybuilding.com writer John
Gray who was there to compete in the men's open. I
found John to be a very nice guy and he was in great
condition. The competitors meeting was at 10:30 and it
was quite long and ended at 11:30 leaving everyone
only about 20 minutes to put on their bronzer and
whatever else they had to do to get ready.
I was very
lucky to have Pete and Tony there to help me get
ready. As the other competitors started taking their
clothes off I started getting very anxious and felt
like I was way outclassed. I am glad that Pete and
Tony were there to reassure me constantly and keep me
from freaking out. I continued my carb load, this time
by consuming a pan pizza (to fill me out and bring out
my vascularity) at 10 o'clock.
Competitors Meeting
The competitors meeting was at 10:30 and it was quite
long and ended at 11:30 leaving everyone only about 20
minutes to put on their bronzer and whatever else they
had to do to get ready. I was very lucky to have Pete
and Tony there to help me get ready. I was competing
in two classes on this day the Men's Novice tall and
the Mr. Evansville class.
As our class stepped
onstage you could almost hear the audience gasp, no
one could believe this was a novice class. I heard
one of the judges say you all are in such great
shape, this isn't going to be much fun for us judges.
Our Class
Our class was a very tight race for the 2-4 spots,
however one competitor was much more conditioned than
all of us and it began to show as the competition
progressed. He had a huge split between his upper and
lower pectorals, very prominent lower pectoral
striations, deep separation and striations on his
inner and outer quads and very well separated
hamstrings.
Many people said that he could have
placed highly in the men's open division and several
of the judges said he was not far off from getting his
own pro card. I did not let this intimidate me and I
posed like I wanted to win and I was very
aggressive.
I Am In The Middle
We were out onstage quite a while which
led me to believe that the judges were having a hard
time making up their mind. After they finally let us
go I went backstage and ate a few oatmeal cookies and
then began to pump back up for the Mr. Evansville
division.
About 20 minutes later it was time for the Mr.
Evansville division to go back out. This class was
not as competitive as the men's novice class. The
number one spot was between myself and another
competitor who was also in the men's novice class.
We were not out onstage long as the judges had probably
already made their decision about this class earlier
since we were both in the men's novice heavy class
together. After we left the stage I went out to watch
the men's open class compete...what an unbelievable
bunch of freaks. I could not believe these guys were
natural.
Open Class
One particular gentleman had striations in
his hamstrings, that was quite possibly the freakiest
thing I had ever seen but it was very cool. Their
class was onstage for at least half an hour. There
were at least three or four guys onstage that could
easily be WNBF pros, they just all happened to show up
at the same contest...what a treat for the fans.
One
of the judges even said this is the best lineup of
amateur natural bodybuilders I have ever seen.
Another said these guys have muscles in places most
people don't even have places! It was very cool to
watch.
After the men's open class left the stage it was
break time. It was 2 o'clock and finals were not
until 7 o'clock. The guys and I stayed around to
attend a seminar the WNBF pros Dr. Joe Klemczewski,
Dori Frame, and WNBF world champion Dave Goodin put
on. It was extremely informative and I must say these
three athletes truly know what they are talking about
and I wish I knew half of what they have forgotten
about diet and training.
After the seminar was over
the guys and I went out for pizza but I didn't have
any as I didn't want to spillover at finals later that
night. I just kept munching on raisons. We then went
back to my house and watched a couple of bodybuilding
movies for a few hours and then it was time to go back
to finals.
Dream Tan
Pete, Tony, and I arrived early to apply another coat
of dream tan to me. Then I started going over my
routine a few more times in my head before it was
actually time to go out onstage. The first
competitors to do their routines were the men's novice
lightweights. After they were finished it was our
turn. My routine went very well.
I did it to
Metallic Hero of the Day and Anthony Church later
told me he thought my routine was the best routine of
the night. After all the novice heavyweights had
finished their routine's they brought us out for a
pose down and then presented us with our trophies.
They announced me in fourth place. That was quite
possibly the toughest pill I ever had to swallow. I
was torn up inside and felt like breaking something
but I kept it to myself and kept smiling and waved to
the audience as I accepted my trophy.
And The Winner Is...
As I walked backstage my mind was racing. This wasn't
supposed to happen...I dieted for 14 weeks, I didn't
cheat, not once, this isn't right. Words like
failure and loser kept echoing in my head. I didn't
really even bother to pump up for the Mr. Evansville
division pose down. They announced me in 2nd place in
that division but it was little consolation. All I
could think about was my fourth place finish.
I stayed to watch the rest of the contest which was
very entertaining. WNBF's pros Dave Goodin and Dori
Frame put on excellent guest posing routines. And it
was fun to watch. But my mind wasn't on that...it was
still stuck on my 4th place finish.
After the contest
Tony, Pete, Jay, Vin, Anthony, my family and I met up
with Brad (another member from the Bodybuilding.com
message boards to have some pizza at my favorite pizza
place.
I think they could tell I was somewhat down
about my placing and they reassured me saying your
only 20 all those guys were years older than you, when
you get to that age you'll be awesome. It didn't make
me feel much better as I never make excuses for myself
and I consider age as an excuse. The pizza made me
feel better however. We went back to my house and the
guys and myself stayed up late and just chit chatted
about random things until we all fell asleep.
Bodybuilding.com Crew
The next morning my family and I said goodbye to the
Bodybuilding.com crew. I'll miss those guys, they
were great to hang out with and all of them are great
guys and welcome in my house anytime. After they left
I remembered that I still had one contest left to do
in Tennessee the next week and I had to start
depletion week all over.
I was so depressed about my
placing that I didn't even feel like dieting or
competing the next week, I just wanted to dig a hole
and crawl in it. I moped around for the next couple
of days and was down on myself, until... Pete sent me
the pictures for the contest and I realized how close
the contest actually was. I didn't get beat by that
much.
Looking at the pictures I realized that I had
improved quite a bit from last year and that if the
competition level of the show would have been the same
this year as it had been last year I would have
definitely won. This snapped me out of my feeling
sorry for myself funk. I became totally focused on a
new goal... kicking ass at the SNBF Tennessee
supernatural championships.
Those results are coming in my next article.
For More Pics On The Contest, Click Here And Here!
Click Here For Anthony Church's Review Of The Contest
As always, if you have any questions email me at
biolayne@yahoo.com
biolayne@yahoo.com
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