Studying the Blade, part 2: Tournament Results

Howdy, everyone. As promised, I am back to tell you all about the tournament!

The short answer is, it was a blast and I did pretty damn good for a first timer.

The London HEMA Open was a two-day affair and included events like rapier and dagger, saber, and longsword. The Longsword categories (which is my weapon) were both on the auspicious Star Wars day. (May the fourth be with you.)

I woke up at the butt crack of dawn because the venue was an hour and a half from my house. The night before, I made a checklist but nerves kept me from sleeping very well. Even though my event wasn’t until the evening, I wanted to experience as much of my first tournament as I could.

Part of that meant signing up for volunteering. There were a few different roles, like checking sword flexibility, judging, line judging, and tabling. I ended up tabling because I certainly do not qualify to judge yet (remember the rules from the last post? And how subjective calls are?). While tabling, my job was simply to record the score on the computer and keep time, or turn a little score card. And shout the score a lot. Very important. The room got very loud. We noted every exchange, even the ones that resulted in no score, because all of the tallies add up in the ranking system. (Remember that for later…)

So I did that from 9 AM until 3 or 4 PM. That crossed the womens + saber and the open longsword events. Saber was interesting to watch because it was the first time I’ve seen a lot of different one-handed fighters really going hard at each other. I won’t lie; it had me considering trying saber. As I mentioned, I love single sidesword, but it’s not usually a tournament event. Saber on the other hand seems sort of similar??? (Any HEMA folks following me, correct me if I’m wrong; I’m sure I’m wrong.)

Watching open longsword, though…oof. Some of the best in the world were there (told to me in awed whispers by my school mates, or resigned dread by those who had drawn lots against them). The speed made it hard to follow sometimes, and I can imagine the judges had a hard time keeping track of the exchanges.

While open longsword went to the eliminations round, I got suited up and did a bit of warming up with a friend so that we could get out of our heads and remember how to hold a sword. We came back just in time to watch the finalist match, where Miro Lahtela (who was pointed out early on as the best) took gold. (Remember that, too.)

My pool was, as one of my more experienced school mates helpfully pointed out, full of sharks. Big sharks. She also helpfully pointed out that I was in the hardest pool. Most helpfully of all, though, she gave me another warm up bout before the matches began and told me to pony up and get aggressive, so that, however good they were, they had to work for every point they got on me.

So that’s just what I did.

And you know what? It fucking worked. Thanks, Alex.

I had some knocks, some pretty rough—rough enough that one put my helmet out of commission and I had to borrow one mid-fight from my opponent’s ring coach—none other than THE Miro. Yes, borrowing a freshly used fencing mask is every bit as gross as you’re imagining. But I was absorbing that gold medalist sweat, baby, I was IN. IT. (Yes, I lost that match. She went on to take gold in womens+ so I’m not mad about it.) But I did win a match! And I came pretty close in another!

It was exhilarating, though. The strategy, the desperation, the experimentation—the chance to bring together all I’ve learned so far and then learn even more. Huffing into the dank cotton, sweating into my padded armor. There’s nothing quite like it and I can’t wait to do it again.

I was lucky enough to be on the piste with the live stream, so you can watch the official footage on YouTube. I’m in all black but have one white sock. (The judges call out the name and band color, too.)

Here’s a helpful guide:

• Fight 1: 9:40
• Fight 2: 15:26
• Fight 3: 27:00 - I did a cool swipe move at 32:30 - Victory!!!
• Fight 4: 38:53
• Fight 5 (eliminations): 1:22:30
• Fight 6 aka me realizing I’ve made it to eliminations by the skin of my teeth because another fencer dropped out: 1:15:40

I also saw a dear old fencing friend, and so that was pretty great, too.

With that challenge accomplished and satisfyingly so, I am switching focuses! Though there are more summer sword tournaments, I’m going to temporarily reduce my emphasis on fencing training and move on to my next fun challenge…

Enter…the fell run.

For my next trick, I’m taking on my most challenging race yet: Maverick Lakes Osprey 25K. That’s the middle distance of four; the others are 14K, 44K, or 52K, all of it through England's Lake District. It’s also a level 5 (out of 5) in the Maverick race lineup. This will be the longest race I’ve ever done (I’ve never run more than 13.1 miles/half marathon) and the wildest terrain.

But a new challenge means my favorite form of procrastination planning! In the image below, you can see my new pages for the Lakes Osprey and my first half marathon training plan for the 2022 Paris Half. I already have a plan pencilled in for the 25k and I’m coming at it from a different level of fitness—I’m already running 10 mile long runs on the weekends—but I’ll need to get more of my long runs on trails where possible, and to strengthen of all the little joints that keep you agile and injury-free. This means a lot of single-leg strength; accessory work for the hips-knees-ankles-feet; a bit of agility training; and adjusting my strength workouts to accommodate the increased mileage so that I can still recover (see: injury-free).

As before, with the half marathon, with the longsword tournament, I have my little section for the ‘why.’ There are many reasons.

One of them is research.

When I told my editor I wanted to write a sport book, I got a funny look and some trepidation. But if there’s anything I know, one is writing tragic character studies disguised as adventure, and the other is athletic struggle. From the very beginning, when I first wanted to write a novella, this is the one I wanted to write. I wasn’t ready a couple years ago, and Fate’s Bane came spilling out instead.

But when I first started running long, I often ran while listening to audiobooks by runners, especially ultra runners’ memoirs, and watching documentaries about things like Badwater. It was inspiring or at the very least, intriguing. And then I wanted to see if I could write a story about someone on a really long run and make it really work, make it really special, as special as these wild races that people actually do—like Badwater (135 mi through Death Valley), like Comrades (89 km), like the Dragon's Back Race (380 km over Welsh mountains), like the Marathon des Sables (257 km through the Sahara), like UTMB, the Boston Marathon-like ultra that everyone tries to qualify for.

Each of those ultras and so many more come with the most amazing and most harrowing stories. I want to explore what it means to push your body to such extremes and to understand why a person might do that in the first place. What drives them to take the first step?

Most importantly, what drives them to the last?

Obviously, my race is a fraction of that—at the moment, though I have the curiosity and even a bit of the hunger, I am not yet ready to commit to something like the Dragon's Back. Not yet. But they do have a baby dragon... the hatchling. 😉

Some internet folks who inspire me on the running front/good resources if you're interested in running or learning to run:

• Coach Bennett: My favorite, and imho, the best. Originally of Nike Run Club fame, he now has his own podcast and newsletter. He's the best motivator, the best teacher that I've had for this sport. He's gotten a nod in almost all of my acks--go ahead, check the back of The Unbroken.
• Nike Run Club (app): Specifically the guided runs, many of whom were led by...Coach Bennett. There's a great set of First __ runs, and those got me started on the right foot, and taught me how not to hate the sport with my bad attempts at starting it.
• Hal Higdon's Training Plans: Some great plans that tend to do a good job at keeping people from injury. He errs on the conservative side of mileage on the novice plans, which is great.
• Garmin Training Plans: Garmin watch's in-house half marathons training plans got me to the distance twice, and I like those, too. I've thought about going with one for this race, even, but I needed just a bit more flexibility.
• tommyrunpt/That's Runnable: Tommy is an ultrarunner I found on insta, and then started a podcast, as one does. I've listened to a couple and they seemed well-suited to helping new runners, though Coach Bennett is the one to go to for motivation. He's got a lot of great tips and experience, and shares a lot of the technical know-how. He also acknowledges that he's a bit silly for putting his phone down, running back, then running forward again, just to get the cool shot. I appreciate the honesty.
• Tommy Rivs: A different Tommy entirely, Tommy Rivs is also an ultrarunner who was already well known in the field, and developed a devastating cancer during the COVID era. Somehow, he lived. And I just love his ethos. My partner even got me a necklace with his motto: GENTLY RAGE.
• Jonny Davies: A bit more bro-y, he's known for performing wild ultra stunts, like running all the London tube lines. Very loveable, though, and he let's you peek into some of his training.
• The Morning Shakeout: Another favorite up there with Coach Bennett. A longstanding running podcast that interviews runners from all walks of life, all areas of the sport. Some are long, some are shorter, all are great, inspiring companions for a run. There's also a newsletter that pulls together other thoughts and news in the running/running philosophy world, and a weekly workout.

I’ll leave you with this action shot, taken by Grace Curtis, author of Idolfire, which is famously about camping and walking, not running. Send her your best wishes and maybe buy her books because I have conned convinced her into running this race with me.

What I’m Reading

• House of Dusk by Deva Fagan. I finished an ARC of this recently and it was just…it was just such fun and well written. And tailor made for me with all of my favorite things: a weary soldier who becomes a monk to atone for her past only to find out the past isn’t done with her yet; an assassin who falls in love with her mark—the enemy nation’s princess; and a really cool magic/religious system. If you follow me and like my work, they may be YOUR favorite things too, so preorder it or keep it on your radar for August.
• Ammonite by Nicola Griffith. Many of you will already know I am a fan because of Hild and Spear, but Alix Harrow, who kindly blurbed Fate’s Bane, said a part of my novella reminded her of this book and has been on me to read it ever since. And so it’s part of my ‘read good, write better’ scheme. And it is beautiful. And terrifying. I’m pulling a lot of connections to Baldwin’s Another Country, from the attention to the body and desire, to the incisive and elegant descriptions of setting. That’s worth an essay all on its own, though. Maybe I need to start a book club.

News

As far as book news, I have the usual for you: a few events and the usual reminder to pre-order—but this time there is a twist!

Maybe I have compiled all of my deleted scenes across the series. Maybe this includes all of the deleted Cantic and Djasha points of view from The Unbroken. Alternative plot lines. Maybe this includes letters from Djasha to Aranen that didn’t stay in The Faithless. Maybe it includes a Sabine POV from The Sovereign…maybe, maybe…

Maybe if I had done this, it would be quite a substantial document. One worth sharing. Perhaps.

Events

• NEW! Big Queer Book Fair, May 25: I'll be on a "your favorite author's favorite author" panel at this from 4:30-6 PM. This book fair has loads of different events and workshops, and my event in particular is a fundraiser for The Common Press, one of my favorite queer bookshops in London.
• In Conversation with Antonia Hodgson, author of The Raven Scholar @ Waterstones Canterbury, Tuesday 27 May @ 18:30 - A reminder! The Raven Scholar was immensely clever and so enjoyable, a return to my favorite kind of epic fantasy. There will not be a livestream of this.
• License to Write with V. Castro @ Cymera Festival in Edinburgh, Saturday June 7 @ 17:15 - Join us live or on livestream as we talk about writing licensed IP projects, specifically Ambessa and Rebel Moon.
• In Conversation with [TBC], about Fate's Bane @ Toppings Edinburgh, Tuesday 4 November @ 19:00 - Come out to Edinburgh if you're nearby and we'll chat Fate's Bane! I love this little book and I'd love to spend the evening talking about it with you.
• Fate's Bane is out on Netgalley and The Sovereign is out on Edelweiss - if you're an early reviewer with access to these sites, now is your chance!

Alright, that's all for now.

Stay sharp, my friends.

C. L.