VMST Annual Swim Meet

I remember this meet last year. It was held at the NOVA pool and I went to cheer on my friends but ended up deck entering 6 events and bought goggles and a swimsuit 30 minutes before my first event. Last year was done in typical Margaret fashion of signing up last minute, this year I decided to be ahead of the game. When registration opened months ago, I signed up the first day. Now, last year was SCY and this year was SCM, something I haven't done in nearly 6 years, so I had no expectations of how I would do. That's the fun of masters swimming, though. It doesn't matter your age, where you are in life, your speed or ability. Masters swimming is go with the flow and do what you can and are able. 

Coming off of Halloween last week, this week was filled with a lot of sleep, two swim practices and three runs...I wasn't fully prepared, but it's masters. This morning I woke up and I felt awful, everything hurt. After nearly two hours in the car, I was in the pool doing an extended warmup:

900 easy loosen swim

6x75 K/D/S w/:15R 

6x50 Pace

12x25 12.5fast/12.5 easy

200 Float  

800 Free (Record: 12:38.85, Time: 10:16.34) 

Denise came up to me when warming up and told me the good news. "You'll break the record." How do you know I'll break it? "Because it's so slow." She was right, it was really slow and it hurt like hell, but I broke the record by a lot, as seen. When swimming I was remembering the last time I swam the 1000...my senior year of college. It was awful. I felt my breakfast coming up around the 700yard mark and immediately following finishing, I ran to the bathroom and up it came. Today, at the 600meter mark, I felt it, but kept it down. My back was cramping up from all the flip turns and my legs were cramping, but I still pulled out a good time...I think. Converted time to yards: 9:15.26 

50 Free (Record: 28.78, Time: 28.57) 

I looked at the program and saw I actually had competition for the 50. If you don't know age groups in swimming, there aren't many in the 18-24 age range, so this was exciting that I had a 23 year old with an entry time faster than mine.  What can I say about the 50? I had a good start, I had a solid flip. Out touched her, so a good finish. Converted time to yards: 25.73 

200 Free (Record from 1987: 2:21.12, Time: 2:20.69) 

Ever since high school this race has been such a mental game for me. I started with a 2:10, worked my way down to a 2:00.00 every race from senior of high school to halfway through senior year of college. At least I'm good at staying consistent. Senior year of college at conferences, I was able to break that awful 2 minute mark. I didn't just break it, I destroyed it by 4 seconds on my first try. That's what hard work, a good taper, and years of crying from seeing 2:00.00 can do to a swimmer....motivate someone so much to push through the worst pain they have ever felt to finish the race hard. So today, there was no music, there was no self-motivating pep talk, it was just me and the water. Last year when I swam this, I went a 2:12 SCY...let's talk about awful. Goal for today, beat that and beat the close record. Per usual, this race kicked my ass and hurt so bad. My legs were cramping, my arms were sore but I kept kicking and touched to an awful time, but a time good enough to beat the 1987 record by almost one second. Hey, I'll take it. Converted time to yards: 2:06.74 

400 Free (Record: 5:23.97, Time: 5:02.79)

After my 200, I floated down the cool down lane and assessed the pain. I was ready to scratch from the 400, call it a day and go home to bed. Then I remembered B2B and the first 40 miles. That awful pain, the temptation to DNF and just call it quits. I took a deep breath, figured I had a lot of time before it to continue cooling down and went for it. Denise told me it wouldn't be a problem to break the record, as my 400 split in the 800 was a 5:08. Okay, swimming the 400 free. Dove in and opposed to my typical 50 sprint in all races, I tried a more relaxed approach, all based on how awful I felt. I succeeded in having a slower first 200 than in my 800, which probably wasn't ideal. I saw Denise on the side jumping up and down and giving me signals to go faster. I didn't think I was going that slow, but when I touched the wall, I realized she has been trying to get me to break 5:00.00. If only I would've taken it out the speed of my 800, I would've had it. Nevertheless, broke the record by 21.18. Converted time to yards: 4:32.78 

Final Thoughts 

For someone who had no expectations or goals in mind going into this meet, I am very proud of myself. Sure, some of the times weren't great, but I am at the end of my season, my mind and body were both shot, but I am the new record holder of four events...two of which by huge margins. I'm proud of how the season wrapped up and am looking forward to hibernation. Ask me in four days if that is still true and I guarantee my answer will be different, but as of right now, I need sleep and recovery from what my body endured that past several months. I'm happy. I'm proud of what I've accomplished--highs and lows. I learned a lot. Everything from this season will help me to be better for next season. Now to bed I go!