Race Report- 1st Swim Meet

I'm a swimmer!!!

I mentioned to my coach a few weeks ago that I wanted to swim in a meet, he immediately responded, "You will, and a year later you'll swim at US Masters Nationals."  I've been swimming for a year now, and it is time to challenge myself.  Being ready for Masters Nationals, I don't know, but I definitely want to start competing to see where I am.  Don't forget my motto for the year- "Live Life Out Loud!"  He and a few of the other local coaches convinced me to sign up for an event in a local high school meet.  It was an extra HS meet for swimmers to earn qualifying times for their conference and state meets, so anyone could really sign up because everyone competes as individuals.

So here I am..27 years old, competing in my first swim meet!!!  The days leading up, I had a lot of work to do.  One of the big things was learning to dive, period, and then to dive off the blocks! I also had to work on my flipturns, since I was going to have to nail one at full speed for the 50 freestyle.  I was soooo nervous that day.  My coach entered a seed time of 39.99 seconds and I was determined to beat it.  No matter how fast I swam, I knew that I would be eating the high schooler's bubbles. But, this was all about me and pushing outside my comfort zone.  I climbed on the blocks when they called us up and my legs were shaking.  I nearly fell off the blocks and false started.   I haven't been that nervous doing anything in a very long time. When the gun went off I dove in and was off.  I swam as fast as I could, the whole time worrying about having to nail the upcoming flip turn.  I took 4 or 5 breaths into the wall (A big NO NO in the swimming world), basically hyperventilating, flipped ok, but came off deep.  After getting out of the turn, I swam as fast as I could and got my hand on the wall. No matter what my time was, I was proud of myself for what I had done.  I crossed a huge hurdle in my swimming career, swimming in my first event!

But then... I turned my head to look at the scoreboard and it said 39.40!!! When I started a year ago, it took me 1 min 15 seconds to swim a 50. I have almost cut my time in half! I beat my Coach's goal time for me and exceeded my own expectations!!! And in that moment, I realized I was hooked!!!