The evening portion of a bodybuilding competition is really more for the families and for the show promoter to make their money. There is no judging in the evening except for the overall winners of each class. Also at night you do your posing routine to music and it is ninety seconds long while in the morning it is sixty seconds without music. On the subject of music I had picked the theme from Conan the Barbarian. This is comical to me in looking back now because I feel a person’s music should match their personality and their physique. Now perhaps I had a fiery competitive sprit inside but at a whopping one hundred thirty six pounds in no way shape or form did my music parallel my physique! The powerful classical piece just did not match the package I was going to bring to the stage. However ignorance is bliss so I was happy as a clam at the time about the song.
At around six thirty the teenagers were told to start pumping up. So the whole oil and pump up process began yet again. I walked over to the backstage curtain and peaked out into the auditorium. I was shocked at how many people were out there. Holy shit it was simply packed with spectators. The morning had maybe a hundred people or so but now it was standing room only, I was simply stunned and quite nervous again.
They told my class to line up. As the show is ran in numerical order and as the promoter had said I was indeed number one and I would indeed start the show that night. The master of ceremony had information cards on each competitor and would announce your name, where you lived, trained and anyone you wanted to thank for their support. I had thanked John and Gary for their support and with that the announcer said “now let’s give it for our first competitor of the evening, Jeff Storch!” I walked out looking confident but inside I was shaking in my boots. My music started and I began going through the poses I had practiced a hundred times at least. At first the crowd sat silent and then from the darkness a baritone voice boomed “Come on now people, this young dude has busted his ass for this; let’s give it up for him!” The crowd seemed to be woke up by this and began to holler and cheer for me. I felt a huge cheese smile spread across my face and I think that is the very moment I was bitten by the bodybuilding bug. I completed my routine and was followed by the twelve other competitors in my class. After the last guy in our class excited the stage the expeditor told us to stand by and listen for our numbers to see if we were one of the three guys getting a trophy. Ten of us would be going home empty handed. Being the youngest in the show I had resigned myself I was probably one of the ones going home with nothing. It was at this point I heard the master of ceremony say, “In third place in the thirteen through seventeen division, number one, Jeff Storch!”I just stood there completely stunned! The guys in my class were all saying “GO, GO, GO man, you are in third place, you get a trophy!” I walked out on stage in a daze. A pretty trophy girl showed me where to stand, put my trophy down in front of me, put a medal around my neck and even gave me a kiss on the cheek! This is totally freaking awesome I thought to myself! The bug had really sunk its teeth into me at that point. This was going to be a long, long road!