Last weekend was the final swim meet of the spring season, it culminated in the Inland Northwest Championships. The event was great, I had a very fun, rewarding, and challenging meet.
I am a triathlete who is branching out into competitive swimming. This is my first full season of swim meets and I’m quickly becoming familiar with the swimming scene. Much like triathlon, it seems that swimming, no matter the meet I go to, has the same group of people.
Also like triathlon, one of the highlights of the swim meet is continually seeing those friends that I have made throughout the season. Swimming and triathlon have great people, maybe the dedication and commitment to training draws a certain type of person.
I was lucky to have many swim friends to share the meet with, Diana, Beat-up-the-beat Brown, Donn, Charlotte, Flora, Gabby, and many more were all a big part of the swim success. Thank you all for sharing it with me.
My amazing swim friends attending were:
This meet was very important to me; I had trained my brains out the last four months getting ready. For the meet I planned to swim a tough program modeled (somewhat loosely) after Michael Phelps’s 2008 Olympic program; 400, 200, 100 individual medley, 500 freestyle, and the 200, 100 butterfly. What made this task even more difficult was the separation of the two hardest events, the 400im and 200 fly, by only the 50 freestyle.
*My fastest swim times ever!
I am a triathlete who is branching out into competitive swimming. This is my first full season of swim meets and I’m quickly becoming familiar with the swimming scene. Much like triathlon, it seems that swimming, no matter the meet I go to, has the same group of people.
I was lucky to have many swim friends to share the meet with, Diana, Beat-up-the-beat Brown, Donn, Charlotte, Flora, Gabby, and many more were all a big part of the swim success. Thank you all for sharing it with me.
My amazing swim friends attending were:
*Montana buddy Donn L
*Beat-up-the-beat Brown
*Charlotte of Montana Masters
*Jack from Team Wenatchee
*Idaho swim coach, Christine
*Brown's lady friend, Gabby
This meet was very important to me; I had trained my brains out the last four months getting ready. For the meet I planned to swim a tough program modeled (somewhat loosely) after Michael Phelps’s 2008 Olympic program; 400, 200, 100 individual medley, 500 freestyle, and the 200, 100 butterfly. What made this task even more difficult was the separation of the two hardest events, the 400im and 200 fly, by only the 50 freestyle.
*Championship venue!
Being the final meet, and the BIG championship, I wanted to swim my best. Lucky for me I had three things going for me in my favor.
1. I have been receiving some great swimming tips from a gorgeous Olympic hopeful (lucky me).
2. I trained hard, harder than I have ever trained my alternate strokes in my preparations for this meet.
3. My good friend Evan gave me a very…unique…racing suit as a pre-championships gift.
If you find my suit eccentrics offensive, then send a thank you to Evan. Lol. I actually received a lot of compliments on it.
*Yeah buddy
My first event was one of my favorites, the 400im. I swam pretty well; I held back just a little bit knowing I had the 200 butterfly in just a few minutes. I had Diana and Brown cheering for me at the pool ends, which was nice, I appreciated their cheers. Despite holding up just a little, I was able to match my personal best from last week in the 400im.
*Calm before the chaos
*Mixed final, let's go!
The next event was the “killer,” the 200 fly. I held up the first half with the hopes of bringing it home in a hurry. I swam well, felt great, and with more cheers pushing me, I went just under my personal best time. Awesome.
*Unleash the mean face
For the sake of humility, I will summarize my remaining four races by saying, “I have no idea what came over me.” I lowered all my personal bests from the Montana Swim Championships the week before. I dropped 3 seconds in the 100im, 7 seconds in the 200im, 7 seconds in the 100 fly, and 25 seconds from my P.R. in the 500 free.
Like I said, I don’t know what came over me. Attribute it to the grueling workouts I did all winter, the help Diana has given me, and the motivation to open it up and see what I had. Anyway, I wound up winning the 25-29 year age division in all 6 events, that’s going out in style.
Not to be out done, Diana swam very well breaking two more master’s records in the 200 backstroke and the 50 fly. Before the 50 fly she told me, “I want to go low 27s (meaning she wanted her time for one lap of butterfly to take 27 seconds).” I replied with, “I think you can go 26.” When all was said and done, she went a 26 and broke the record, just like I said she would. J
*Psyched after smashing the record, told ya.
Beat-up-the-beat Brown also swam very well in his races. He was sporting some stylish new jammers and some loud cheering arm charm. It was nice to have Gabby join us. His times were very respectable. We won’t mention that little DQ for the one-hand touch in the 100im…oops, too late.
*Brown getting ready to rock
*Brown in his 50 fly final
*Brown and Gabby after his race.
*Gabby striking a pose
*Donn cooling down after his 200 free final
*Christine gives the weekend two thumbs up
My first swim season was a huge success! How could so many adventures, awards, and special moments not be a success? Winning my division in all my events at the Inland Championships was incredibly satisfying, pure icing on the cake. That just goes to show you what a person can do when they believe in the power of one.
Just wait until next year…
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