I’m happy to report that I survived the swim meet last night, but it was close!

While warming-up, I realized that the starting blocks were on the edge of the shallow end.  The very shallow end.  As in “4.5″ feet deep, that was actually only 4 feet deep.  The thought of diving head first from 2 feet above the edge of the pool, into something four feet deep terrifies me.  This might be commonplace for swimmers, but I am not a swimmer and can’t differentiate my diving techniques between shallow and deep.  It’s whatever happens, I have very little control over it.  Every kid learns don’t dive into shallow water.  If my mom found out I launched myself head first into something 4 feet deep she would kill me, if the dive didn’t.  Luckily, Jordan was just as uneasy about the whole thing as me.  We talked to Sean who, after some extreme coaxing, said we could dive off the side.  No in water starts.

Oh geez, I’m not even going to get to live to have the chance to get my pro card.

I did one practice dive off the side, didn’t break my neck, and decided it might be ok.  Jordan tried one off the blocks and hit his elbow on the bottom. Eek.

About 15 minutes before my race I warmed-up again for a couple hundred yards.  My favorite warm-up/pre-race routine (for running too) is to do a few short repeats at goal-pace.  I did 4×50 or so at 1:20 pace and it felt good - smooth and relaxed.  I started to think I could go even faster than my goal of 22:00.

The race went off, I didn’t break my neck diving, and my goggles didn’t fall off so I was good to go.  I got it going and felt like I was moving faster than 1:20, but it’s impossible to know for sure with swimming.  No visible clocks, and I can’t hear anything anyone is yelling.  The lap-counting method seems bizarre to me too, who counts up in a race??  The girl in the lane next to me, who can’t be taller than 4′10″ lapped me twice.  Maybe this isn’t going so well.  It sure feels hard…

Gradually the count goes up, and the suspense of my time is killing me.  I was more excited to see my time than to actually finish.

I hit the wall, looked back: 21:22.  Sweet!!!

Jordan got all of my splits (what a guy) and I was surprised to have swum (swam?) so evenly.  I hit 1:18s with the exception of a few 1:17s and maybe a 1:19 or two.  I think I only deviated 1.5 seconds or so throughout.  Not too shabby.  I’m happy.

I think I can go faster.  I’m shooting for a sub-21 at the COMSA State Meet at the end of March.

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