Stars and Stripes Long Course Meet

This weekend the hubs and I got 'numb butt' at another swim meet. It was a local meet and not very big, which meant it started later and ended sooner. But we were still there for 5-6 hours when you include the time we had to get the kidlet there for warm-ups.
The saving grace was that we didn't have to get up at the butt crack of dawn and drive a couple hours before sitting for six hours only to drive back home. And I actually got my walk finished an hour earlier to have it finished before we went to the meet.

So win-win . . .  plus, on Saturday, I won some cash with a local radio station's, 106.9 K-Hits,  money machine.

I managed to catch $27 in ones (officially $26, but later discovered another $1 shoved in my bra!). It wasn't much, but it was more than I had 30 seconds earlier! The only reason I strapped on their fanny pack was to keep the money from falling out of my shirt when I shoved it down the neckline of my shirt.

We also learned at this meet to bring our camp chairs. The bleachers had a large space at the top where you could park the chairs, so we snagged a couple of spots both days. It wasn't the premium location, but when you only get up four times to watch your kid swim, it was ideal.

During the down time, I managed to read three out of six contest entries. I still have to comment on one entry and then I need to tackle the 'newbie' writer entry.

But back to the swim meet . . . my kidlet had a wonderful meet, but then again, she always does at the Jenks natatorium. It's a beautiful pool! This is set up for long course, which makes the pool 50 meters--Olympic-sized in length.

We also discovered, once again, that my daughter isn't a sprinter and 50 meter sprints in any stoke isn't her thing. BUT she shaved time off every single even she was entered in!

Saturday:
200 meter IM --    3:06.55    - 6.70 
50 meter Fly --      41.17       -5.22 missed by 1.64 seconds
100 meter Back -- 1:28.35    -2.64 missed by 1.84 seconds
50 meter Free --    34.96       -1.57 missed by 0.56 seconds
Sunday:
100 meter Fly --     1:32.65    -8.92
200 meter Free --    2:51.88   -6.57
50 meter Back --     41.26      -11.18
100 meter Breast -- 1:45.86   -18.72 missed by 2.67 seconds

Everything in green qualified her for Long Course Age Group finals at the end of the month, plus two she qualified for at another meet: 200 Back and 200 Breast.

Considering how short long course season is, the kidlet had a great run and took tons of time off her previous times.

Later, Peeps!

Aloha Long Course Meet

This last weekend we watched the kidlet swim in her first, and probably only, long course meet of the season. We have various camps and other things going on that it will be difficult to fit a weekend swim meet into the schedule.

I insisted upon this meet because:

• it was in Jenks and only 15 minutes from our house
• we could do all 3 days without much cost other than the actual events (no hotel, no eating out--beyond our normal, no excessive driving, etc)

Little did I realize:

• this meet took place the weekend before finals
• Sunday would be cancelled mid-meet, due to tornadoes
• there's a really cool app for this--Meet Mobile--search for the meet, find your swimmer, favorite them, and it gives you all the times, seed times, place times, split times, etc.

Long course is tougher for most kids. The pool is 50 meters long--Olympic-sized--and swimming that distance without the break for a turn is tough on most of the kids who routinely practice in a 25 yard pool.

Most of the kidlet's events were NT--not timed--which means she's never swam that particular event in an official meet before. She swims the distances, but not in long course version.

Prior to the meet being cancelled, the kidlet was having a really good meet, earning 90 points. I have no idea what the 'point' system is, but it gives you the points on the app. I think it helps in overall team ranking and swimmer ranking--to help rank them when they are NT for an event, but really, I have no clue.

On Friday:
200 IM, shaving 27.58 seconds off her previous time with a time of 3:13.25 putting her in 10 place for all the 12 & Unders who swam--missed OAG by A LOT, but it was her first Long Course event since last summer.

On Saturday, we spent a hellish day on the bleachers as the morning session went over by an hour, but we arrived when we were supposed to be there . . . seven hours later we hobbled out, crippled for the evening.

Here's Saturday's events:

She swam the 200 Free Relay with the 'C' group of senior girls from Swim Tulsa. She was the youngest one on this team as the girls had all 'aged up' (when you turn 13, you automatically swim with Gold team) in the past six months. The team finished 12 overall, from a NT seeded position of 16, with a time of 2:20.36. She swam the third leg with the second fasted time of the team--34.43 seconds.

200 Meter Free--no seeded time--2:58.45--missed qualifying for Long Course Age Groups (OAG) by 1 second.
100 Meter Back--NT--1:30.99-- Missed qualifying for OAG by 4 seconds
200 Meter Breast --NT--3:44.85--Qualified for OAG (by 1 second)
50 Meter Free--NT--36.53--Missed qualifying by 2 seconds. Even if she could use her relay split time, she would have missed qualifying by 0.03 seconds.
 
Sunday:
200 Meter Back -- NT -- 3:06.39--Qualified for OAG (by 8 seconds)

And then, after sitting there for five hours they cancelled the meet--This was when we heard about the Shawnee tornado. She wasn't able to swim the 100 Fly, 100 Breast, or 100 Free, but all-in-all, she had a wonderful meet.

It was hard for her to know how fast to swim when she didn't have a previous time in an event, plus many times the other NT's in the heat scratched and she was swimming against only one or two other girls.

That's it for now.

Later, Peeps!

Long Course Season

This last weekend we attended a Long Course swim meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas . . .

What was that? You want to know what Long Course is?

Oh, of course, I can explain . . . I think.

Swimming has no 'official' season, unlike football, basketball, soccer, baseball, etc. Swimming is all year round with a week break between long course and short course. That's it, only a couple of weeks off each year for swimmers.

So, long course is basically the longer pools of 50 meters, whereas short course takes place on pools of 25 meters distant. Olympic pools are 50 meters and most school pools are shorter at 25 meters. I won't get into the 25 yards vs 25 meters thing because I really don't understand it myself other than some pools are measured in yards instead of meters. It isn't much, but here's the conversion:

25 meters = 27.3 yards 

When kids go from short course to long course, they are used to relatively short swimming distances before they hit the wall to turn. It doesn't seem to take as much out of them. When they start long course, there is double the length they are used to swimming before they turn.

In other words, it messes with their minds. Rightfully so, it looks intimidating.

Anyhoo, we drove the two hours to Fayetteville, and I must say that I would NOT have a problem with my kidlet attending college there. It's a beautiful campus in the middle of rolling hills, not far from some state parks and the mountains.

FYI: We're talking Oklahoma/Arkansas mountains, not the Colorado Rockies.

This was the University of Arkansas's pool.

--in fact, her old swim teacher graduated from UA and I texted her with updates after each swim.

We sat up in the upper deck of the bleachers, so the view was wonderful. Right about where it drops off for the high dive and turns deeper blue. The only problem was that the second timer board wasn't working, so we timed the kidlet with our Ipad.

Her coach signed her up for:

100 m freestyle
200 m IM (individual medley)
100 m breast stroke
50 m butterfly

Since she had never swum this length before, she was untimed (NT). Considering it was her first time to do this distance, she did pretty well for her age. She didn't quite make the 'B' standards for any of these events, but she was only a few seconds off that criteria which would put her in the middle of the pack when she's seeded for her next event.

As her old coach said, "Good position to improve time with future races and keep motivated."

So . . . we signed her up for another meet in two weeks. We would have waited longer until the meet here in Tulsa, but she's camping that weekend.

Later, Peeps!