Too bad this is my 5th time :)
The 2013 USA Memory Championship is finally upon us! The 16th annual competition of the minds starts at 8:30am this Saturday, March 16th in the Con Edison Building (4 Irving Place, NYC). For those of you planning to go (and everyone reading this should be planning to go), the first event starts at around 8:45. You'll be seeing us "mental athletes" memorize names and faces, massive numbers, poems, and then decks of cards. That's in the a.m. After we break for lunch, the top 8 competitors battle it out elimination-style on stage. To me, this is really the most exciting part of the competition for viewers, so if you don't have all day to kill, aim to show up at around 1:30 to see that. It goes till about 5ish.
Good god it's gonna be a good one! This is how excited I am: here and here and here. I'm trying to win my third title in a row, while a good handful of new-comers are setting their sights on the title as well. Some competitors are even throwing around the world "world record" for a lot of the events. I've set records that are respectable in the world of memory, but to see a world record be broken on the USA stage would be unprecedented. We will see.
How am I feeling? Honestly, I don't think I've ever felt so calm before a competition. Back in 2010 when I first tried to win, I was nervous as hell. In 2011 I was slightly nervous but confident more than anything. In 2012 I was an absolute wreck - I have no idea how I kept it together. But this year I for once, feel great. Not because I'm kick-ass confident or anything, but more because I don't really care as much this time around. And when I don't really care when memorizing, I memorize the best. Either way, I'll be trying to break all the US records as usual. Hopefully I can walk out with a few new ones and a few old ones improved.
Hope you can make it out there. If you can't then you can follow my twitter. I'll be tweeting as much as I can throughout the day.