Saturday, October 23, 2010

Representation

Today was our first swim meet, it was a small, local meet, which are called FANS. Not really sure why, but I just go along with it. The pool was small and unable to host the whole team, so the older kids swam in one pool and the younger kids in another. A bit challenging to grasp the concept, but the same swim meet was going on in two different pools, just different age groups.
We warmed up in our 25m pool here and then got in a huge bus and traveled into San Pablo where the meet was being hosted. So for my first event I was going cold turkey, when it came to the block, walls, etc. A bit nerve racking, but I was able to pull out a 1:16.45 in the 100br, which correlates to a 1:08.4 in yards. Not too shabby for being in the water for a little over a month. Just as I had expected, all eyes were on me as I swam, which put a bit of pressure on me to want to perform well. So glad I was able to.

One of the things that I've been thinking about lately, is that I don't want a rivalry to come between Ana and I because we both swim breaststroke. I swam faster than her today by 2sec, but her back's been bothering her so she hasn't really been training breaststroke. She's more of a longer swimmer, like 2br and 4im, which are definitely not my elements.
The time that I went in the 100br is the cut for the championships of Andalucia (the providence that I am living in), so looks like I will be competing some more. My 100fr was fine 1:04.15 which correlates to 57.3 so pretty good, nothing special.

After that session we had about 2hours for lunch and a nap before heading back to the pool for warm up, then the bus to the pool. The afternoon was the 200br (2:51.49), ugh... And then the 100im (1:11.43), the coach was pumped because my time is either a new team record or super close! I was right next to a kid on our team (Ale) who just turned 16 and has Spain's record in the 100bk for 15year olds. I was keeping up pretty well, considering I'm a girl...I totally owned him on the start and we were even-ish at the first turn, and then came backstroke, and I'm sure you can imagine what happened. Wow who would have thought I could hold my own against these Spainards.

Over all it was a pretty good experience, I feel as though I represented my state pretty well, and now I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the season holds.