Bryan Brosious: Swim Championships

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Swim Championships

In the months before the J. Clarkson Memorial Triathlon I had some vivid dreams of the race. When I had a dream in September about Swim Championships in Oregon I knew that was my destiny and that I had to go. During the dream I was swimming the 400 individual medley, a race I had never swam in competition. It is arguably the hardest swimming event so I thought it a nice challenge and quickly signed up. Swim championships is a two-day event so I decided to max out on events and swim the 400IM, 200IM, 100IM, 100 freestyle, 50 backstroke, and 50 butterfly.

I started crafting my two-month plan to get ready for the big competition. During the two-month build up I had some great training, but I also had a few distractions and tough times that I really had to focus and work through. Let me say that every good story has drama, and I had plenty of drama to keep it interesting. :)

I made the long drive to Oregon, a state with amazing views, and arrived late to a dark city and neon lit hotel. I knew my destiny was fast approaching; the 400IM is a very hard event because it combines strength, endurance, and oxygen deprivation. It is a very hard event when you are fit; if you aren’t fit, it’s impossible. Just before I went to sleep, I was feeling prepared, but very under-focused. I hoped that when I woke up in the morning I would be sharp. Swim championships started in 10 hours with the hardest of my 6 events.

*Nice views in every direction

*Nice view out the right side

*Nice view out the front

*Nice view out the left side

*The view in the mirror isn't as nice, hoy yoooo!

This meet was the short course championship swim meet for the states of Montana, Idaho, Utah, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. I anticipated many more people than actually showed up to swim, but like all things, races have been impacted by the economy this year. Regardless, I had prepared and I was there, and that was all I could control.

The facility was amazing, Montana doesn’t have many large swim competitions so the swimming pools while nice, are far from the 10 lane, 50 meter Olympic size swimming pool complete with a 30 meter dive platform that greeted me. This was a short course meet so half the pool (25 meters) was the competition side; the other half was the warmup and cool down pool.

I warmed up by swimming (obviously) and practicing my block starts. I always feel relieved when I dive off the blocks and my suit and goggles stay on. That’s a small victory in itself. After a great 45 minute warm up, my heat of the 400IM was called to the blocks, “Swimmers behind the blocks please.” The referee blew once on her whistle and said, “Step up please.” A quick, “Swimmers take your mark,” followed. Anticipation hung as I waited for the starters signal. Scott had given me advice to pace myself and not start too fast. The best way to wreck a race is to start too fast.

The signal came and I dove off the blocks. I tried to go extra deep and dolphin kick underwater. This technique makes the butterfly portion shorter and saves energy. I wouldn’t hold myself out as a swim-specialists. I am pretty good, but I am very far from the best. My individual medleys show my strengths and weaknesses pretty clearly. The first and last portions, the butterfly and front crawl are strong for me. Once I hit the middle sections, the backstroke and breaststroke, I usually lose time. The contrast in my skills makes the race interesting and fun.

I knew I had to pace my self in the fly then stay tough and just “get through” the back and breast strokes. Once I made the last freestyle portion I knew I had it all handled. The race was every bit as hard as I knew it would be. The 6:42 I swam was good enough to get that age division championship that I wanted.

Over the course of the two-day meet I took some good pool beatdowns from the swim specialists, but I did manage to win my age division in 5 of my events, I consider that a great success. I think I did A-OK.

I was very lucky because that same weekend, my cousin Bre had a volleyball tournament in Oregon. I spent Friday and Saturday night with Bill and Debbie at her games. They are great people and I was thankful to spend time with them. It was a long weekend filled with challenge, anxiety, determination, fitness, and fun. These are all the things that make an adventure.