Well, when i bought a V.I.P. ticket to the Arnold Show , I had no intention on checking out the aerobics or fitness competition. They were just part of the package, imho. When I flew out to Columbus, Ohio from San Francisco, California, I was on the ass-end of a nasty flu affair. I seriously considered blowing off the whole affair since I felt like a can of royal shit, but given the demands of my web site viewing audience, the considerable expense I invested in air fare, preparation, and, tickets to the event, I felt obligated to give it a go.
I was not a happy camper since I was relegated to a tertiary hotel due to the many conventions being held at the same time as our dear Arnold's event. I arrived into Columbus around 11pm and was told by the nice folks at Holiday Inn on the Lane that the shuttle stops running at 11pm and it would take 45 minutes for them to get back there, which of course was a no go. Whatever the hell ever happened to customer service, the client is always right, etc.. Damn! I jumped into a cab and arrived at the hotel 22 minutes later. I have always hated the Holiday Inn and I will continue have a secret wish for its total demise. But of course, it was truly my fault since I didn't reserve space in mid-1996. You reap what you don't prepare adequately for.
I was finally given room number 26x? and prepared myself mentally for a night's sleep. Oh my god!! The room was smaller than my bedroom closet, the lights were depressingly dim, there was this bed in the middle of the room, and I was right next to a few iritatingly loud pop (i'm from the midwest originally) machines!! NO! This is NOT happening!! I called the front desk and told them that I simply couldn't endure such torture (not tonight anyway) and I demanded another room pronto. The nice little submissive man at the desk put me on hold a bit and finally said that there was a room available on the 3rd floor and he'd have a key sent up to me promptly. After about 15 minutes, noone had come up with a key so I began calling some of the best hotels just so I can get the hell out of the hotel from hell. I hear a knock on the door. A woman came to my door with the key and insisted upon carrying my bags. She was a breath of fresh air, indeed. Room 321 proved to be of my liking so I opted to stay at the Holiday Affair. It was much bigger, much brighter, and much more tolerable. I finally, got to bed at 1am or so.
Friday morning I was in no mood to check out a bunch of prissy babes and aerobic wonder folks. All I wanted to do was to conserve my energy to prepare for the biggest event of all -- bodybuilding!! I was still not quite well as my appetite was at an all-time low. At about noon, I ordered a steak and potatoes and lo and behold, I got just what I asked for: steak and fries. Shit!! Here's $20, go away!!
Yes, I blew off the fitness preliminaries as well as the fitness expo in favor of a nice comfortable bed, albeit alone. :-) and the USA Today. Craig and Sophie McQueen, my buds from the FEMUSCLE discussion forum (check out the links section of this website if you wanna know how to subscribe), arrived about 4'ish and I gave them a ringy-dingy. We did the dinner (yuk!!) thingy and proceeded over to a dear friend of theirs and competitor, Laura Binetti and hubby, Scott's hotel room for a brief visit. She was calm but hubby was bubbly so to speak. Gene Hwang hadn't checked in yet so he missed dinner with us. I won't talk about dinner as it was the worst dinner perhaps of all of our natural born lives. Lucky you, Gene!
Enough about me and my extremely bad attitude, let's talk about the event, eh?
In any case, we proceeded on over to the Fitness Finals and the Aerobics Finals (the aerobics event is a newbie at the Arnold's). If my placings are off, forgive me as my portable computer battery died and I couldn't find a writing instrument. Can't you tell that I'm having the time of my life. But yes indeed, the fitness competition was cool! Oh, what a blast. what a blast!! There were 15 competitors as follow:
I apologize for not getting the 2nd runnerup but PARDON ME!! I'm a sick babe without any writing utensils!.
Every year, these fitness women get more and more muscular than before! Truly exciting indeed! Where will they draw the line between bodybuilding women and fitness women? Or will they? I betcha they will.
The quads on Dale Tomita, Carmen Moreno, Karen Hulse, and Michelle Bellini were to die for in my humble opinion. Okayyyyyy, NOT SO humble opinion! How could anyone say these women were prissy! ME BAD!
The monies awarded the women was a total of $50,000 with $1000 going to 7th-15th place. I believe that the first place winner, Carol Semple-Marzetta of Lakewood, CO was $20,000 or a few thousand more. The announcer never ceases to amaze me when he awarded Dale Tomita the 4th runner up trophy and then had to retract. GET IT RIGHT, DUDE!! Your job isn't that difficult, just read the darn paper, already!
I won't go into detail about the aerobic competition, but I was impressed and am looking forward to checking it out next year!
Craig, Sophie, and myself took a shuttle back to the Holiday Place. I went up to my room kinda excited but a tad tired and opted to go down to bar for a nightcap. Talked to some stranger for about 30 minutes, finished my V.S.O.P. and beer chaser and decided to whip this out and retire so that I can get up early for some real food and one of the premiere bodybuilding prejudging events of 1997!!
Sorry for the lack of pictures, but guess what? I left my camera in the hotel as well. Tomorrow she will be totally prepared!!
Enjoy and check me out later!!!