Zone championships (part 5)

We marched along the blue taped box on the sports floor. As the marching music progressed, the gap between me and the lady in front increased. It was the luck of the draw. The lady with the shortest strides might go first. This was a fairer system than at some interclubs where taller ladies might be continually assigned to march first.

The tape on the ground had changed. Three different colours were available forming a left lane, right lane and middle staggered lane. I ended up in the middle lane which meant that I had many ladies in my peripheral vision. Since starting physie, I've improved at not looking at my competition; however, this innate habit still exists.

I danced remembering most of the corrections that I had written down the week before after watching a clip of myself at my club competition. For example, I remembered to not spread my legs so far for the final pose of warm-up and to lead with my hips instead of chest when marching.

My heat was over and it was time to hear the songs re-looped another four times before the announcement of the finalists. In the marshalling room, all novice ladies sat in their heats again. Numbers were called out starting from heat one. They'd already moved onto the heat after my one. Clearly, I had not made the cut and therefore no semi-finals for me this year. Bring on 2018!