Exhausted

Yesterday was as enormous as we anticipated, or perhaps more. Wrestling didn't finish until about 7.30! 10 hours after it all began. 15 hours after we got up (2 hours of driving to get there, 2 hours home). We got home at 10.30...way past my Cinderella hour.

Late afternoon I was starting to shake on the inside (anyone else have this response to fatigue?). Part of that was the sheer length of the day and that wrestling isn't exactly relaxing to watch. Part of it was the emotional response to watching our son win and lose.

It was a knockout competition with consolidation rounds. Our son won two then lost a match which meant he went into the consolation rounds. He won the first of those which took him to the 3/4th place match for his weight class. He lost that match. Those last two matches were particularly hard fought and prolonged, going the full six minutes.

After we got home I have to admit to shouting at one boy who took too long (in my frazzled opinion) in the shower before I could get in. Exhausted.

They get into some pretty interesting positions.

We made it to church this morning but have had a quiet afternoon. David and I both tried to read but found ourselves retreading the same paragraph again and again or our eyes spontaneously shutting. I gave in and napped for an hour.

It was an enjoyable day, I don't regret going, but it was certainly taxing. I'm thankful that parenting has taken me down this track, a track I never thought about and really I'd rather this sport than many others (such as sitting outside in the freezing cold watching soccer).

There were 13 international and military schools there from across Japan and even one from Korea, plus one Japanese club, probably about 150 high-school aged wrestlers. There were 10 wrestlers in just our son's weight category. This makes Australian National Championships seems a bit small! There our son just had to beat two guys to get the gold. Yesterday he would have had to beat up to four guys.

Here is our son very nearly pinning his opponent in his 3/4th place bout, but he failed and subsequently lost the match.

Proof that they were still wrestling after 7pm.

Driving home on an unusually vacant road. Explanation: it was after 10pm!