Sunday, January 12, 2014

Wilton Masters Swim Meet 1-10-2014

I did my first swim meet in 45 years today.  Down in Wilton at their Y.  It was a lot of fun.

I swam the 50 meter free first.  I tried to have a plan, but just found myself swimming.  Toward the end I went into my big kick and finished strong.  I think I should have started it sooner.  I won my heat and finished with what I thought was 37 something, but when the final results came out it was 35.71.  That translates into a 31.91 for a 25 yard.   My previous best 25 yard with a stop watch was 33 something, so it shows I am still getting faster.

I think if I had pressed hard sooner, I could have been even faster.  I also need to get a real bathing suit and learn how to do a flip turn.  Anyway, I am off to an auspicious start.  I was racing against people who have been swimming all their lives.  I came in 3 out of 3 in my age group, just missing nipping number two by a split second.  I would like to get under 30 seconds for 25 yard.

The other races I did was the 50 backstroke, the 100 IM and swam the anchor of the 200 medley relay.

The back stroke I did in 51.24.  I felt like I was going fast, but the winners were way faster.  I was getting lots of water in my mouth from all my kicking and arm moving.

I almost missed the 100 IM.  The events go very quickly.  I did it in 1:44.26, which was good considering the best I had done in the 25 yard pool was 1:45.  I had some transition problems on the turns and my breaststroke sucks.  I finished strong with the free.

Then I did a relay shortly after.  There were only two teams in the heat, and the other team was way ahead by the time I got to swim.  I found out my time was 39.something, which was slower than my earlier, which I can attribute to being tired, I guess or no longer racing anyone, but I felt like I was going fast.

One thought I had standing on the block was compared to all the triathlons and running races and open water swims, all I had to do was swim 25 meters turn around and come back and I was done.  Not bad.
Still I was very tired when I got home.

Anyway, very positive experience, gave me lots of things to work on.  I learned a lot watching all the strong swimmers.  I am grateful for finding the Master’s program and the great coaches who are helping me.  One of them, Galen, told me she was very proud of my progress and even gave me a Masters team shirt to welcome me to the team.

There is another meet in February, but it is down in Westport, so I am not certain I will go, but maybe I will take off work.