OK kids, here we go. Gonna post quick recaplet now, and full meet experience recap at some point today - probably after I eat A LOT more food!
Squat: 415 easy, 440 pretty easy, 455 got me a bit off balance and I couldn’t recover. Didn’t feel heavy though. Final: 440.
Bench: 320 - easy but forgot to wait for the judge’s ‘rack’ command so got red lighted. 340 - easy, 360 - hard but nailed it. Final: 360.
Deadlift: 490 - easy. 530 - got it but harder than I expected. Went for 545 instead of 550, but still couldn’t quite get it. It had just been too long a day (last DL attempt at about 8pm, awake since 6, at the meet since 7 for weigh-in, hadn’t eaten a meal since 12:30) and I didn’t have any gas left. Final: 530.
Total: 6/9 lifts and 1330 total. Not a bad first meet! Even though this was my first meet, I was not at all concerned with going 9/9. I'm a more experienced lifter than most doing their first meet. For me, it was more about finding what my current capabilities are, and getting used to the meet environment, experience, and commands than gaining confidence in the lifts - I already have the latter, but needed the former. And that's exactly what I got.
Stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way home and did major damage. Country fried steak, mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, chicken dumplings, biscuits and butter, double fudge cake and ice cream. Traffic at the Lincoln Tunnel @ midnight, of course. Finally got home around 12:30am. An awesome day.
Thanks to everyone for following and cheering me on with your good thoughts!