Southern Classic Figure Competitions 2005!

I woke up this morning feeling pretty good. Prejudging was run by the Vice President of the NPC, Mr. Peter Poter. I have never met him before. He had us figure girls running around in circles on stage this morning. He wanted to put us in these weird diagonals. There were 14 girls in my division this year...After prejudging, I went to take a nap...I was exhausted! It is hard to stay contracted on stage and hold your body tight for long periods of time. Some of the girls in the dressing room who had never competed before made the statement about Figure being alot of work....Hell Yes, It's WORK! the training, the dieting, the painting of your body, your suits, your hair, your makeup, your shoes, your nails, your toenails...............Everything involves work!!! The way you carry yourself on and off stage, your stage presence, your attitude, etc....... We exchanged recipes backstage while waiting to go on.....alot of the girls were from Mississippi. The night show seemed soooooooooooooooo long....It was almost 2 hours in between us going out on stage again to be presented the awards...I was tired and my back ached!! The show had 142 competitiors in all divisions, the most ever!! The time has come to announce the Figure short winners, 5 of us go home with trophy's while 9 of us go home empty handed.........I GOT SECOND PLACE!!!! Some of the audience booed as they called me at second! My heart crushed, my breath collapsed! I had come in so much leaner and tighter than last year....I had better abs, back and leg developement than first place! I didn't understand what I did wrong!! I was sick! The 20% softer rule had indeed effected my placing! After talking to the judges, I knew that I had ran into my first show that involved.....POLITICS!