The 50th year celebration

So didn't have a big party didn't go on an exotic trip somewhere, I celebrated my 50th year my way. First I was done school by this point and the prospects of working for myself in Vernon were slim at best, so Gwen and I both had opportunities in Prince George and because of the amazing support of our families this was the move that made sense.  In July R&R Massage Therapy moved to PG and I have spent the year building it and loving my new work. The first of my planned adventures happened the Aug long weekend after my birthday Tiffany and I took Hang Gliding lessons something I had wanted to do for a long time.

In September I started preparing for WPC Worlds in powerlifting they were held in LasVegas in November. Although this meet didn't go quite as planned with the help of Mike Webber choosing my attempts and Kevin Lutz helping with my gear we manage to win my division and set a world bench record. Powerlifting is what I have loved the most in my years of training and this meet was my major focus of the year.

 Next was preparing for my first body building show. With the help of a trainer we started in December. Seven months of hell and support from many people I got on stage at provincials in June. I manage a third place finish in the grand masters division, which was awesome since I went into this hoping not to make a fool of myself. Body Building was a bucket list thing, when I start lifting I wanted to Body Build but I was one of those skinny kids and it became apparent that I was never going to put the size on that is need to be competitive. It has taken a long time to get here and if I didn't do it now I never would.

 Then with five weeks after the body building show I had to bring my weight back up and try to gain back the strength I lost from dieting down so far to get ready for BC strongest man. I manage to win the 405lbs deadlift for reps event with 21 reps and I also won the log clean and press for reps with 13 reps I was middle of the pack on the other events except my nemesis the stone load where I had a poor performance which bumped me from third over all to forth. still I had a great day so much fun. Those of you who know me, know I've had strongman equipment since the mid nintys, but I've never really competed mainly because there was always another oylimpic lifting meet coming up and then powerlifting meets after that. I did some small stuff, but this year I finally made the big show in BC

This was my present to myself the accumulation of more than thirty years of training and twenty one years of competing in strength sports led me to my toughest and most rewarding year of competing at the age of fifty