My second martial arts tournament. I went to the event with three goals: to make weight; to survive a full five-minute round and not do anything reckless or stupid; and to watch what I could and learn from other people.
And all three were achieved pretty successfully.
I even picked up a bronze medal after scraping through my opening fight, and I felt I could have maybe gone further if I hadn't suffered a rib injury two minutes into my semi-final.
But I have no complaints. If anything, I probably over-achieved. It's a single step on a very lengthy journey and not the end destination. The key thing is I'm feeling less out of my depth at these events and I'm adding extra bits of experience.
I now need to recover from this injury as I have another event in three weeks. But I wanted to compete this year and, aged 45, I'm now doing that. I'm a very happy (if a bit of an injured) camper.
