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September 18, 2007 Well we made it. It wasn't exactly our best skate, but we had a great time all things considering. Lake Placid was a beautiful location, with a wonderful rink to hold a Junior Grand Prix. Unfortunately the day before the short program, Bianca and I fell on a lift on our second practice. I walked away with only minor bruises on my head and hip, but Bianca was a little more banged up. We really owe a lot to Adam Perreault, the physical therapist for the event. Not only did he play a huge role in keeping our injuries as painless as possible but he turned out to be a good friend to both Bianca and I. With Adams help, Bianca and I fought through our injuries and we managed to place sixth in the short program, even with a fall on our first element (double axel). Bianca and I were less than thrilled with our placement, pushing us to do our best and get into the top four. Although looking back now we both realize that 6th place wasn't bad considering what happened the day before. All that afternoon people would come up to us and make comment about how the pressure should be lessened and we could just skate for fun, but we both felt much more pressure because we desperately wanted a second Junior Grand Prix, requiring a top four finish. We finally had a good practice on Saturday giving us a little momentum for the freeskate. The freeskate went really well and we placed third. Fourth overall. We were satisfied with our performance despite having a poor warm-up. To make things that much better, our freeskate took place on Bianca's 18th birthday. All day before the program, when people would wish her a happy birthday, she would lean over to me and say that her birthday doesn't really begin until after we had skated a strong freeskate. You can watch us skate both programs on icenetwork.com.
Following the event we spent
some time with our relatives who live in the area. Bianca has
some cousins that live near Placid, and my aunt drove up from
New York City. The morning after the competitors' party we
drove to New York City for Bianca's birthday. We enjoyed a
couple of days seeing the sights. Best of all, for me anyway, I
got to go see a few matches of tennis at the U.S. Open.
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