Held in Volusia County, FL 11/18/23 weekend.
Rainy, wet, muddy, the usual Florida weather whenever a Nationals match is hosted there. I've learned that two pairs of range shoes is minimum. Pack a poncho, a gear cover, & be ready to jump into the shower with your nasty shoes, socks, and pants muddied up to your knees. Nationals competitions in Florida are not for the faint-hearted. I kind of enjoy running in rain but can do without the black-rimmed toenails.

This match was a nail-biter for me. Unsure if I wanted to compete with the same goals in mind - attempt to make qualifications for the Open Team in 2025. Chances for 2022 WS were extremely slim for me, uncertain, and yes I was even undermined. It was a long (and expensive) 5 years of back-and-forth to qualify for Worlds. 2022 in 🇹🇭 was still so worth it though!

This Nationals, however... without a vision came little prep. Long story short: equipment breaks - give yourself enough time to fix and practice. In this case, the week before Nationals, we were finding parts of the reloader breaking one after another. I exhausted all the time I needed to do all my gear checks at the range, and it was go time.

Unfortunately, it showed in my scores that gear checks need to be done before every major. It's not all about believing things will work out like they should. Shots were flying everywhere, and I thought I was out of practice. Then shots plummeted into No-Shoot targets. Now I'm thinking my dot has dropped zero. Little did I know, my mount was beginning to loosen during the match and later discovered general wear in places I didn't expect. This gun has performed for me in so many cities! It had a great run! Now it is time for it to go back in for maintenance.

I think this video is important to display. Not all matches are golden. To succeed, I have to do my homework though. I have to push to make deadlines with fixing the reloader, and have to zero my gun on days I'm just beat. These small opportunities are the things that keep us ahead.

Anyway, we trek along into 2024.

#uspsa #ipsc #teamusa #womenwhoshoot