As I mention almost every blog, there are two different circuits of fencing. There are the National Team competitions and Collegiate meets. For this competition the first NAC (North American Cup) it was on the National team circuit however Penn State paid for some of its athletes to compete in representation of the university. Because we were being paid for by the school we had to drive to Detroit from State College and stayed at the cheapest hotel, The Red roof Inn. I’m not trying to badmouth the university and I’m grateful that they thought I was worth paying for, I am just trying to set the expectation for what the conditions of these competitions are.
This was the first competition I had fenced for Penn State and it was basically what I thought it would be. Just as we did in Temple all the people fencing on the same day were vanned to the competition which means there were ten people crammed in with luggage for about six hours. The ride wasn’t that bad as most of us slept, played heads up, or did homework. You have to be careful about sleeping on these rides though because your teammates will be jerks and post you on social media.
The good thing about this particular trip was we didn’t have to “dress for success”. We were required to wear our warmups but everyone just changed in the van after so we were not as uncomfortable during the ride as we were when wearing dresses and heels. I always make sure that I have charged everything from laptop to Ipad to phone during these trips because music and movies are the only reason I don’t end up killing some of my teammates.
The competition itself was fun as we all got to see our former club mates and catch up with old friends and family. Even though Penn State is responsible for you you can generally ask the coaches to hang out with friend or family after competition as long as you are back at a reasonable hour and make it back in time to be in the van home.The night after the competition my old teammates and I wandered around Detroit looking for a place to eat. Detroit iis a very hipsteresque place with not much happening for those uderage. Finding lunch with my PSU family the next day was proven successful though as we found a cute little hipster diner, the food was great and people were very friendly.
The van ride back was better than the ride there as we stopped for food and slept most of the way. All in all it was a fun and positive experience for my first PSU represented competition.