September 4th

Today was the first day for the Open Competition, the weight classes were Men 560kg, Men 680kg, Women 520kg and Junior 560kg. We are on the pulling schedule for the 640kg class tomorrow. We used the morning for training near the competition area and finished the afternoon with watching the finals for the men's 560kg and then the start of the men's 680kg and the women's 520kg. South-Easthope from Stratford had entered a team in the afternoon, two of our pullers, Ginger and Julia, pulled on that team today. Before the end of the competition we decided to go back to the hotel to check our weight. We weight on the test scale was perfect - 638.5kg and we went direct to the line-up for the official wegih-in. After 45 min it was finally our time to step onto the scale. After tonight we are done with all the weigh-ins and we no longer have to cut back on our food intake, a very good feeling, especially with all the good food they have at the all-you-can-eat buffet. Tonight, some of us also had a massage to stay loose.