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!

Swim Meet

It's my baby's very first swim meet today!!

I'm probably more excited than she is, but that's the hope of all parents--that their child finds a sport they enjoy and if they excel at it--BONUS!! Plus I'd love to go to the Olympics with her some time down the line, jus' sayin'.

Though the meet is just 20 minutes away from us at a new facility (Jenks high school), it will be open to any swimmer in her age group, which means many, many swimmers. Since this is our first meet, too, I'm probably overthinking what we need to take with us. It's not like we are staying overnight or traveling a long distance, or even spending more than 5-6 hours at the pool, but I do want to take extra stuff (goggles/swim cap/snackies/water) just in case.

Parents are NOT allowed on deck during the meet, so the kidlet will need to have all this stuff packed in her bag. So I hope not to see any of those 'ugly' parents who yell at their kid or coaches or officials.

The Saturday AM events are all 12 & under--she's 10, which means she'll be competing against kids older than her as NT (not timed. This event will give her times, which will be used at the next meet to evenly sort the heats).

There were over 220 kids in this part of the meet. Some of the girl's heats had UP TO 133 ENTRANTS!! Teams came from several OKC clubs, several Tulsa clubs, Talequah, Wichita, Bartlesville, SWMissouri, NW Arkansas

Here are the events her coach placed her in:

• Coach Dylan placed her in a 200 yard freestyle relay--the girls placed 5th in their heat with a time of 2:41:98. The girls just learned how to DO a relay this week and have never competed as a relay team before today!
• 100 IM--individual medley 25 meters yards using each stroke--2nd place in her heat with a time of 1:40:05.  Top time for her age group is 1:23:19
• 100 free--freestyle or American crawl--104 entries--2nd place in her heat with a time of 1:30:60. Top time for her age group is 1:12:29. She might have been DQ'd (disqualified) because she didn't touch with both feet during the flip turn. Hopefully, she'll learn to swim INTO the wall and this won't happen again.
• 50 back--backstroke--133 entries--2nd place in her heat with a time of 48:21. Top time for her age group is 38:19
• 50 breast--breast stroke--116 entries--2nd place in her heat with a time of 59.43. Top time for her age group is 41:99
• 100 fly--butterfly--56 entries--4th place in her heat with a time of 1:43:59. Top time for her age group is 1:26:69 

When we get home, I'll update this list with her placing and times.
Hopefully, I'll be back in sync with my blogs next week!
Later, peeps!

Lost My Mind

I HAVE SERIOUSLY LOST MY MIND. . .

Sorry for the late post, but I have been totally discombobulated (doncha love that word??) since coming home from Canada late last Wednesday. I'll try to get back on a regular schedule by the end of this week.

Here is my list of stuff:

--Pictures are downloaded on my computer waiting for me to have the time to blog

--Still haven't caught up with the laundry

--we had a nice soaking rain last night, which made walking today wonderful since most of the pollen had been washed out of the air.

--need to run lots of errands today, but many are closed due to it being Columbus day

--need to send the City of Tulsa a note to try to get a crosswalk painted across a residential street in Woodbine. The cars go too fast and the day care walks their kids across this street to the school. I did manage to cattle prod them into removing three dead evergreens that caused some serious visibility issues in this same location. If the KinderCare directer does her part and I do mine, then we might get some signs or a crosswalk painted. I'll keep using the words: children, accidents, hazards, etc.

--trying to nag cover artist. She sent me a cover for SUGAR PLUM DISASTER, and I HATED IT!! This was a first for me. I've never hated anything she's done, but this was a cut and paste disaster! it was very Chick-lit and NOT middle grade, nor did it have the same 'feel' as the rest of the book covers. I sent her some images and described in detail what I wanted to see. Hope the next version is better. I know she's seriously overwhelmed with a bunch of deadlines, but I hope I don't get lost in the mess.

--Amazon has now opened a French kindle store. YAY! But my stories are still in English, which will limit my ability to sell. My Sis-in-Law offered to translate (she's French, but lives and teaches here in town), but considering my sell-through in the states and the fact that I haven't even broke even yet, the odds are against me. I simply couldn't afford to pay her unless I could guarantee some sales. And even if you aren't knowledgeable about the book biz, you know that no one can guarantee this!

--I volunteered to help the 5th grade class on their field trip. it's to a local Junior Achievement place called Biz Town. The kids have 'jobs' and earn money and have to spend money for products. Well, today is the volunteer's orientation day. So, I'll be running late to my daughter's first swim meet.

--but first I'll have to take her to Girl Scouts. Of course, they are sending a care package to a soldier, but only notified the parents one day ago. . . A little more warning please! So I get to buy some junk food for the young man, while the Girl Scouts write notes to him. Plus they have fall products for sale. No we haven't bought anything yet. Yes, it's due today, but we were gone and couldn't walk around the neighborhood with her to sell stuff.

--Swim meet tonight is an intra-squad meet. She hasn't been timed in any of the strokes yet, so we have no idea how she'll place. So instead of swimming laps with the rest of the White and Blue team, they'll be competing against each other. This Saturday is her first REAL swim meet at Jenks.

--Oh, and this doesn't even count trying to edit TROLL or SUGAR PLUM DISASTER!

--And now, I need to go to hop in the shower before the I go weigh-in at Weight Watchers.

Let the chaos begin!!

Oh, yeah, I forgot a few things:
--judge the Emily contest--just got 5 entries
--finish putting together a presentation for RWI's Nov. meeting
--help kiddo with her pumpkin project, due on Friday
Later, Peeps!