My first swim meet

I asked our coach whether to sign up for the meet or whether I would be too slow and hold things up. He said I should ask the person running the meet, he didn't know what the times were like. She encouraged me to sign up, so I did. I didn't want to lose my whole weekend, so I said I would volunteer early Saturday morning and swim Sunday only. I signed up for the 500 yard free, because that is most like a triathlon, the 100 IM (25 butterfly, 25 backstroke, 25 breaststroke, and 25 freestyle), and the 100 free.

When I got there Sunday I was a little nervous, but a teammate was much more nervous so I took charge of figuring out what we needed to know. I asked our coach what to do for a warmup (what he suggested was more than we could have done, but it gave us a starting point). People were really friendly.

The 500 free was swum with the fastest heats first so we were in the last heat, but I didn't fully focus on the starting procedure, I just knew I was going to start in the water. I forgot I was jumping into the deep end and and came up sputtering, and then it was the start. I started out awfully fast (1:05 first 50) because I was excited, so my main goal became not to fade too much. Mostly I tried to stay just below getting too out of breath. My time for a 1500 meter triathlon swim last week was 46 minutes so I had said I just wanted to beat 15 minues. When I looked at the scoreboard after finishing I saw a 15, because my last lap time was 1:15. Only after I got out did I realize that my time was actually 12:46, which I was very happy with, even if the 74 year old woman doing her third swim meet ever beat me. I got second in my age group (out of two).

There was a fairly long break and I ate a nut bar but didn't do any more warmup. The shorter events were organized slowest heats first, so I was up quickly for the IM once the next part of the meet started. That for me was the most exciting event because I did feel competent in the butterfly (which I don't always) and was in a tight race with the person swimming next to me all the way through the event. She was always a little ahead and I couldn't gain on her in the freestyle, but I tried. I was very happy with my time of 2:29 (first 50 in 1:13). I was sixth in my age group.

The most interesting event to watch was the 200 butterfly--the youngest person in the race was 49 and the oldest was 65 (the 82 year old didn't enter that one). The 65 year old won it.

My last event was the 100 free. I worked really hard and I had the start a bit better figured out, but I was disappointed by my time. I didn't stay until the results were posted, and now I don't remember if it was 2:20. Maybe I was tired, or I just pushed too hard and lost efficiency. My first 50 was 1:04, second was 1:16.

I stayed to cheer teammates in the mixed relay and still got home around noon, very hungry and with that good feeling of having pushed myself.