February 2009
Nationals was absolutely amazing!!! Chloé and I trained really hard all season and we arrived in Cleveland feeling confident and ready to compete. All of our practices throughout the week went really well. However, I must admit that I was extremely nervous for the short program. Normally, we do not like skating first but I think this time it really worked in our favor. We were able to set the tone for the whole event and once we had finished the program I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I knew that if we stayed focused we could do a clean short because we had done it so many times in practice and in competition during the season. Our goal for the short was to place in the top eight so that we would be in the later group for the long program.
When I woke up Saturday morning I felt much better than I did the morning of the short. For some reason I do not get as nervous for the long as I do for the short. Chloé and I skated another clean program and we were both absolutely thrilled. It was really satisfying to see all of our hard work pay off.
Chloé and I are currently in New York but we are planning to head back to Michigan in March to continue our training with Johnny and Adrienne. We are currently training with our long-time coach Adam Leib, and will be attending the National Pairs Camp in April.