MN Masters Icebreaker Swim Meet

I was a competitive swimmer when I was younger - basically growing up in a pool. My older siblings swam so I tagged along to practices in South Carolina. I started swimming for SEMS when we moved to Minnesota. Things changed! All of a sudden 2xday practices, meets on weekends, and extremely competitive 7-10 year old girls. My introverted self hated this and I quit before I hit junior high so I could play volleyball (and then proceeded to blow my ACL…we all make bad choices).

I always wondered what if.

So in January of this year I decided I needed to stop being scared of swimming with people and joined masters. Turns out, I really missed swimming…or missed a coach yelling at me during practice. It is easy to swim 100 hard on your own and think you did it great; it is a whole new ballgame when the coach tells you to stop slacking and swim like a swimmer. Yes, I almost threw up during that 100.

Since I was having so much fun, Coach suggested I find a swim meet to do so I registered for the MN Masters Ice Breaker Meet.  Sunday rolled around I arrived at the U and started to remember what it was like 13 years ago going to a swim meet. The humidity, the excitement in everyone’s mind, the competition, the wearing of sponsor/race apparel so everyone knows EXACTLY how good you are and the ensuing checking out of those said apparel wearers to try to determine how legit they are...

My first race was 200 free. I was in heat 1 since I have didn’t submit a time to be seeded (and so if I was really slow at least there were others around me). Hey, this isn’t so bad! I felt speedy and got 1st in my AG!

(Why did I quit!)

My next event was the 100 free. Here is my kinda stuff – power! I was always a power swimmer - take a look at my shoulders!  2nd AG.

(Why did I quit??!!)

Then the 50 fly. Yes, I asked to do this one (who asks to do fly??) Never mind that the last time I did fly was, oh, probably 3 years ago in college swim class. I swam fly as a kid, of COURSE I would still be good...oh the pain. Shoulders were barking, back was screaming and then I smashed my hands into the timing mat. I may be the only person who got out of the pool with a bloody finger from ripping off my fingernail.  2nd AG.

(Hmm, remembering why I quit…)

The turnaround between these two events was minimal, and now with an exhausted upper body I was heading into the 500. I had no clue how to swim this, all I knew was my arms were tired but the lap counter kept going up. 3rd AG.

My body was really starting to feel the fatigue from the day as I went into my final event – 50 free.  50 free is an all-out, red-line, kick-like-a-crazy-person-with-a-shark-coming-after-you event. I LOVE IT.  2nd AG.  Look at that awesome start...

Afterwards we went to Big 10 and inhaled our subs and felt like we were back in college.  All in all – I am ready to get back into the pool to get faster (and work on that start off the blocks...)