I Swam, I Smiled

I am back from competing in the Ontario Provincial Masters Swimming Championship meet. It was a long 3 days of competition but I had a blast.

I am thrilled to say that I came home with 3 gold, a silver and a bronze. But the best part was that I improved my time by 2 seconds in each event. This is compared to my last swim meet in 2007. One time I did this meet was the same as I did a decade ago, when I swam 4 times a week with a coach.

Not every race sailed smoothly, one race I went out way way too fast and my body actually shut down 15 metres from the finish. The last 2 metres I didn't know if I was going to be able to complete the race, as my arms literally wouldn't move. That is my first experience in all my years of swimming to have that happen. It clearly was mind over matter to make it to the wall. Definitely a lesson learned=) And I took quite a bit of ribbing from the team. But that is what competition is all about.

I see that many of you enjoyed my thread painting post. I will try and put another one up shortly, once I recover from lack of sleep.

Upcoming Provincial Swim Meet

Much of my time lately has been driving an hour each way to swim. Sometimes I go to another city and that is 2 hours each way, to swim. This meet is a provincial one and will involve an 8 hour drive. I have been swimming for 5 months now.

This meet will be different as I am swimming 2 events I have never swam before. One consists of 4 lengths of each of 4 strokes. 2 of these strokes I do well, but the breaststroke and backstroke I don't do well. At all.

My freestyle and butterfly strokes are good, meaning my technique is good. My speed? Well that will be determined at the meet.

Many will say butterfly is the hardest stroke to do. That is the stroke I am doing in the above picture.

The other event I chose to do, that I have only done once, 31 years ago is the 200 m butterfly. This translates to 8 lengths of this painfully gruelling stroke. This is the last event of the meet. Mostly cause not many are crazy enough to do it, so most will be able to go home a bit early. Not me.

One of my team members sent the following quotes about swimming. The author is unknown, but I enjoyed them.

"It's been said that swimming is a wimp sport but I don't see it. We don't get timeouts in the middle of a race; we can't stop and catch our breaths; we can't roll on our stomach and lie there and we can't ask for a substitution." (especially on a Saturday morning workout!)


"Swimming: from the outside looking in, you can't understand it; from the inside looking out, you can't explain it."

"Breaststroke is an athletic event; butterfly is a political statement."

"We swim because we are too sexy for a sport that requires clothes."

Doormat

Can you believe this is a door mat? I got it in Elliot Lake and am disappointed I didn't think to get my mom one for her birthday. It looks just like the quilt pattern, square in a square.

Tonite is the big night.... when I go before Council and present my case to raise chickens. I spent Sunday nite doing more research, and the past 2 days, practicing my speech. Crazy, I know, but now I think I am ready to answer whatever question they throw at me, whether it be about neighbours, pests, or the avian flu... did you know the dangerous strain is called H5N1, well I do, and I can tell you all about it, the effects in Canada and world wide. I can even tell you how many vials of the antibiotic to combat it Canadas has purchased. 23 million, in case you were wondering.

Yep, my homework is done, now I just have to present it and hope for the best. The late Dr. Jeno Tihanyi said that swimming the actual race is only 10% of the job, and 90% is the practice that takes place before it. So in this case, 90% is the homework I have done and the 10% is just showing Council my stuff. According to this logic, I should win=) I should mention he was Alex Baumann's coach, ya, the Olympic Swimmer that captured 2 gold in the '84 Olympics. As an aside, there is a painting in my house of him, autographed to me, wishing me 'all the best'.

I can use that tonight, Sasha!