So I'm back at it this week after a weekend away at the 2010 Pittsburgh Pro/Am. What a big show this is! I drove down on Friday, making it in 4 ½ hours which was a good start – beating the expected time by 30 minutes. I was staying with Melody (Clere) and her husband Ron so I went straight to their hotel to get settled.

As an aside, Pittsburgh sure has some serious hills, and in residential areas at that. It's the weirdest thing to see how steep these hills are. I'd pity the people that live on those streets that don't own a car. The area I drove through certainly wasn't one for a leisurely walk – that'd be some hardcore hill training just to get back home.

So Friday we hit the host hotel and venue for Mel's check in and spray tan appointment. We just hung out in the lobby and did some people watching, which is a favourite hobby of mine. We saw various industry notables checking in and milling about. After taking a look to see where we were condition wise, we headed out to the LongHorn for dinner.

Here's a couple pictures of what Melody looked like Friday night before we dumped a little water. As you can see, good condition. Unfortunately, I've not seen any really representative pictures online as everyone looks a shade 'softer' than they really were, even the bodybuilders.

 

 

Saturday morning she was a bit tighter still. One of the big problems Melody has run into is losing shoulder fullness and not being able to get a pump or fill out at all the day of the show. We solved that this time – tested it out the night before even. A quick partner-assisted set of 20 laterals and bam, the pump was on.

The show was good, albeit long. We had to sit through about 2 ½ hours of bodybuilding prejudging before getting to the girls. I really thought Melody got overlooked and we heard something similar from quite a few people in attendance. Not sure what happened really, but on the pro scene she's still one of the new girls. Also in the original comparison line up, she was basically hidden since in the front relaxed she was behind the two girls beside her. I really thought the judges should have caught that and told the girls to spread out a bit.

But ultimately, all we can control is the physique brought to the stage and that was one we (and more importantly Melody) were very pleased with. With it being only her second show as a pro, I'm sure getting more pro competition experience as well as face time in front of the judging panels will only help.

After the prejudging we hooked up with Figure Pro Marcy Porter for lunch which turned out to be a great time to talk shop, etc. Speaking of Marcy, I would have placed her higher than fourth personally – more like 2nd or 3rd.

Back to the hotel to get changed, see how Melody was looking and then back to the show finals. This show had a real who's who of guest posers – basically all the big guns in the Olympia – 9 bodybuilders in total; it was crazy.

Melody Clere and Marcy Porter ready to get their Cheesecake on.

Then we had a party of eight that headed off to the Cheesecake Factory (3 girls who competed) for the post-show eats. We closed out that place and then made our way back to the hotel lobby to hang out for a bit talking shop before calling it a night.

All in all a fantastic weekend despite the final results.

Posted May 04, 2010 by Erik Ledin.
This entry is filed under Contest Prep and IFBB Pros.