AMYMSA Championship

Race: Masters Swim Championship (scy)
Date: March 31, 2012 - April 1, 2012
Location: Clarion, Pa.
 
DAY 1: I raced in one relay and four individual events.

(1) 200-yard Medley Relay--I started off my team by doing 50 yards of backstroke. I've been practicing backstroke recently and this paid off. I finished in 39.25 seconds, which is a personal best. Unfortunately I hurt myself on the start. I pushed off with such great energy that I pulled a muscle in my right calf. It's a chronic problem for me. I'll be OK, but it sure soured the rest of the day, since I knew I wouldn't be performing at 100% for the rest of the day. My team came in 4 out of 4 in our gender age group.
(2) 100-yard Freestyle--I was still worried about my leg, so it's not surprsing that I finished this event in 1:12.32, which was about 3 seconds slower than my personal best. I was disappointed. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(3) 25-yard Backstroke--I had to do another backstoke start here with my injured leg. I finished in 17.41 seconds, which is almost a second slower than my personal best. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(4) 50-yard Freestyle--Oh dear, at this point I was psyched out. I had hurt myself and was under-performing. That's unfortunate because the 50-yard freestyle was supposed to be my BIG event. I have been slowly but steadily improving in this event all season long, and breaking the 30-second threshold was within my grasp. My personal best was 30.37 seconds, I wanted to break this record and finish under 30 seconds. Alas, I was unable to meet this goal. I swam it in 30.91 seconds. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 4.
(5) 50-yard Breaststroke--I don't remember much about this event. I was sulking about my poor performance and didn't care so much about my last race of the day. It is ironic that I actually did very well in this event: I came within a tenth of a second of my personal best, finishing in 39.49 seconds. Age Group Rank: 4 out of 5.


DAY 2: I raced in one relay and three individual events.

(1) 200-yard Freestyle Relay--Once again, I started off for my team. This is not by accident, as I had mistakenly shared with my teammates my fear of diving into one of them during the relay (I had never done relays before). So they put me in front so that I'd be diving into an empty lane and no one would have to worry about me diving into them. I wonder now whether they will ever let me compete in the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th position. So anyway, I finished my 50-yard segment in 30.67 seconds. As I mentioned in my report on Day 1, I was hoping to break 30 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle race, and I viewed this event as my second chance. I donned a swim cap for the very first time, thinking it might help me psychologically if not hydrodynamically. I got closer to my goal, but I didn't break 30 seconds, nor was my time lower than my 30.37 personal best. I felt good, though, and I was looking forward to the rest of the day's events. My team came in 5 out of 5 in our age group gender category.
(2) 100-yard Individual Medley--This event held promise. I'm pretty good at it. But bad luck was still following me. For the first time in a year my goggles fell off during my dive. I was able to slide them back into position during the butterfly segment and I thought I'd be OK, but then as I was doing backstroke I realized I couldn't see the flags or the wall. One cannot speed through the water and then not know where the wall is. So I slowed down, felt around for the wall, and with my other hand threw off my swim cap and goggles. I plunged back into the water for my breastroke and freestyle segments and I swam as fast as I could. I was determined to make the best of this bad situation and I nearly beat one of the other swimmers in the pool. But I didn't, and my time of 1:24.89 was obviously nowhere near my personal best of 1:19.30. It certainly didn't take me 5 seconds to discard my swim cap and goggles, but swimming with distractions is not going to break any records. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 3.
(3) 50-yard Butterfly--What the heck! Nothing more can go wrong this weekend, so I was no longer worried about doing well. I concentrated on having fun. I really like the butterfly stroke, so let's go! I finished in 35.23 seconds, about 0.4 second slower than my personal best. Age Group Rank: 3 out of 4.

(4) 100-yard Butterfly--This was my last event of champs, and I had to decide what I wanted to do with it. I had never competed in the event before, so I had no personal best to beat. I was also the only person in my gender-age group, so I was guaranteed a first-place finish. I had no pressure to do anything but finish. Should I do my best anyway? Given it was the very end of the meet, should I expend every ounce of energy to do well? Yes, that's what I would do. I would give it everything I had left. Butterfly is fun, and I wasn't feeling good about my earlier swims. So what was there to lose? I dove in and swam. I passed the 50-yard mark and didn't feel too bad. I got to the 75-yard mark and wasn't too winded. Oh, but the arms and shoulders started to fatigue. It became hard to convince those arms to come out of the water with each stroke. My undulations became exaggerated as my arms got weaker, and my kick started to disconnect from my arms (because the arms weren't doing their part). At 90 yards or so, I was a mess. But I made it, and my friends cheered. I finished in 1:23.58, which was 4.5 seconds faster than the seed time I submitted. I finally felt like I had won something. And then I went home. Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1.