swim meet!

Being an old, over the hill retired swimmer, I still toss my hat in the ring at an occasional masters swim meet. Today was a meet at my home pool, here in beautiful Bloomington (how can a town named Bloomingotn not be beautiful!), so I swam a few events.

so, I go to the meet, warm up 2k or so. Talk to a few swimmers who I see once a year. Nadine Day , swimmer extraordinaire!, was there. She is many time national age group champion, many time world age group champion, national record holder. She just had a baby 2 months ago (and I heard she swam in a meet 2 weeks before she delivered). SHe is tough as nails. She swam the 400IM, by herself. She put on a nice stroke clinic for all of us watching. An 83 year old, Thomas ?, also swam the 400im, and kicked ass. I've watched him swim for years, he broke a national record here last year. He is a bad ass, also swam the 200fly - at 83 years old! I also saw one guy swim the 200fly, and he had the most unorthodox, but normal (and legal) stroke, it was just very long, he paused at the start of each stroke, so he only took 5 strokes per lap! in a 200 fly! the whole way! There are so many interesting people who show up at the meets, I really enjoy watching and hearing the stories between many of them. I guess its not much different than going to a tri.

I swam my first swim meet when I was 5 years old. 25 backstroke. I finished third and got a ribbon. It was so exciting for me. So, now its 37 years later, and I'm standing on the blocks again. I wonder how many times I've done this. I'm guessing I've raced thousands of swim races in my lifetime. I'm in the first event, 200im. But the computer is broken so we sit for 40 minutes! ugh. Then I dive in, and my goggles filled up on impact, and one actually sort of twisted down. What an amateur! I'm sure this has not happened to me since I was 10! I was trying to decide what to do. when can I fling them off. I got through 50 fly blind, but was afraid I'd be dq'd if I tried something one handed at the turn, so I push off backstroke, and they both flop down, then back up and sit on my eyes sort of cockeyed, filled with water, oh this was unbelievable! At the turn I whipped them off, no idea where they went. Swam the last 100 without. final time was not great. I found my goggles on the bottom of the pool, next lane over. The ref came over and told me not to fling them next time. Heck, I'm not sure in the heat of a race I'd be calm enough not to do that if it ever happened again. It better never happen again.

so, now I'm thinking I should just chuck swim meets for this year, and worry about tri, so I could just gouge out my eyes with a hot poker from the freestyle workouts. Then I kicked myself in the ass, and tightened up the goggles, and put on my big girl pants, and got up on the blocks for the 100 fly. ANd hallelujah! the goggles stayed on. Someone started tying bricks to my arms the last 25, and I had not asked for that. I managed to get to the wall, and immediately walked over the score table and told them I was scratching the 200 fly (I may be stupid enough to enter it, but I'm not stupid enough to swim it!)


Next up, 100 back. my favorite event. Had a great start (I love it when I have a good backstroke start, everything seems to flow well if the start goes well), a great 75, was swimming nice and straight, no issues with the lane lines trying to snare me, just as I was feeling overly confident, I was approaching the wall and realized I was going to be either one stroke short, or one longgggggggggg stroke away. I opted for one stroke, instead of two short jamming strokes. Bad choice! I was too short on the wall, and had no leverage for a good push off, and again my last 25 suffered because of it.

SO, some good things at the meet, some not so good. ALways something to learn, even for someone who has raced thousands of races. I know it must seem strange for triathletes who do races that take hours, to understand the interest in doing a swim race that lasts one minute. It probably seems so wimpy. But it is a big challenge to put together all the details for a good race. Its little things that cost or save you tenths of a second that make the difference between a bad race, a good race, and a great race. In a 100 backstroke, here's what goes through my mind, all in just 60 seconds: place feet wide on start, pull up just a little, not too far, push off strong, head back, arch, smooth entry into water, streamline, dolphin kick hard, 6 - 8 kicks, break out with 2 strong pulls, stay centered, smooth strokes, strong kick, don't overkick the first 50, focus on swimming straight. at the flags, know how many strokes to the wall, time it right, don't screw up the turn, it costs too much time. smooth rotation onto stomach, good dolphin, flip, streamline again, tight to the ears, and kick strong, 5-6 kicks. Again, stay centered, build the 25, but save the legs.second turn at the 50, repeat, but now put the kick into the third 25, and work on strong pulls. don't slow down the turnover, and get ready, the last turn has to be best (yes, i know this, and have done millions of good turns, but that doesn't guarantee that you don't have a dumbass attack during a race and screw up!). And as I said above, I screwed it up. Then I had to really overwork the weak push off the wall, and waste the legs. Still trying to tell myself not to give up, keep turning it over, get to the wall as strong as possible. Its a lot to think of in 60 seconds! ANd then its over. And you think back to the mistakes, and hope the next one has fewer mistakes.