Hi everyone. I'm a slow fitness swimmer who hasn't competed since I was 14, but I'd like to start participating just because it looks fun. I understand that anyone *can* swim up to 3 events at Nationals, but do non-qualifiers take advantage of that? What proportion of heats 'd like to go, but don't want to slow everyone else down.
Could not have said it better Glenn I have swum in two masters meets and the big differences I see are: No Pressure and wow is it a good time! Go and have fun Kirstin!
I'm ok with the air quotes, but when did I get relegated to parentheses?And the next step down the slide is a hashtag and maybe an emoticon or 2.
#ThatGuy :o
Hi everyone. I'm a slow fitness swimmer who hasn't competed since I was 14, but I'd like to start participating just because it looks fun. I understand that anyone *can* swim up to 3 events at Nationals, but do non-qualifiers take advantage of that? What proportion of heats 'd like to go, but don't want to slow everyone else down.
Go! Have fun!
Kirstin,
I can only offer my own perspective on this, but it sounds like you & I share some similar concerns.
After 16 years out of the pool, I swam Masters meets in the Spring and Summer of 2013 weighing more than 335 lbs. Setting aside the anxiety and humiliation associated with looking like that (in a swimsuit, no less!), I -- like you -- was really worried about single-handedly adding time to meets and generally annoying people by my presence ("what is THAT guy doing here??"). What I found was a community of adult athletes who honor the USMS principle of inclusion and aren't interested in judging others on deck.
Like you, when it came time to consider whether to swim USMS Nationals at Santa Clara, I still had some misgivings about showing up to a meet for which I had not qualified and potentially slowing down a meet that needs to run on a tight time schedule. I weigh 217 lbs. today, but I'm still several months and dozens of lbs. away from being competitive in my age group. An added complication is that I was only available for Thursday and Friday, so I would be swimming not my second and third-best events, but my fifth and sixth-best events, leaving even bigger gaps between my seed times and the seed times of the second-slowest swimmers in my age group for those events. I signed up anyway, hoping that the organizers and swimmers at USMS Nationals would accept me the way other meet organizers and swimmers have over the past year. To my horror, I found that there were only 11 swimmers in my age group in the 200 Back, meaning that if a single swimmer scratched, I would personally hold up the meet for more than 30 seconds (or even more if I didn't hit my taper). When the heat sheets were released, I was relieved to find that they put me in a heat with other slower seeds from other age groups, although I will still hold the meet up a bit even if I swim well. I think jroddin and others would say that my concerns (and your concerns) aren't warranted, and that no one cares about an extra 30 seconds, or minute, or whatever, as long as you enter the meet with legitimate seed times (which I always do).
I'll let you know if I'm met with any snickering, eye rolling or general annoyance at USMS Nationals, but my strong hunch is that I won't be; this is just a really great community.
Edit: To be clear, when I say that the original poster and I share similar concerns, I'm speaking only to the etiquette of holding up heats as a slower swimmer. The weight stuff is just specific to me.
Awesome story!
I'm ok with the air quotes, but when did I get relegated to parentheses?
#airquotes? #seemedlikelegitusageofquotationmarkstoconveydialoguetome (#whatdoyouthink, #thatguy?)
KRA GOOD FOR YOU !!!!! What you have done for yourself is a really good thing. And the step up to try Nationals is to be applauded !! This is why winning is a part of our sport but not the only thing that brings new - old into it for starters or to return to competition.
I got a man like you at 335 lbs. to start swimming years ago & he does the 200 fly at state Not fast but he gives it all he has.
I've only swum at 1 USMS nationals, I think it was back in 2003 (when it was at ASU in Tempe, AZ). The only thing I remember about the meet was that after my 2nd event, I went in the warm-up/down pool, and another guy asked how I did. After I told him my time, he said, "it is people like you who make these meets last so long."
Mind you, along with swimming, since my team was hosting the meet I had been helping with timing and other volunteer activities, while still working.
I scratched my 3rd event (the 500 free) the next day, and didn't swim in any USMS meets for several years after that. When nationals returned to AZ a few years ago, I purposely planned a trip out of town so I wouldn't have any reason to go near it.
I do occasionally swim in some mostly smaller meets, as well as some zone meets, and I enjoy the positive attitude and energy I encounter at open water events.
While the rules do allow it, and some people say that no one will say anything, what actually happens at USMS nationals is a whole different story.
Unfortunately, you ran into the wrong guy. :badday: Please don't judge the Nationals experience based on a comment made by a loser like that. I have competed in several Nationals, and I didn't make NQT's in most of them. My experiences have been quite the opposite of yours, and I found the other competitors to be very positive and welcoming.
It's too bad you didn't give it another try when it was in Arizona. I hope you will reconsider going to a Nationals in the future, because it's an awesome experience! :agree:
aztimm I am so sorry you had that experience. I can only imagine how that must have made you feel. I hope you try Nationals again some time. My biggest hangup when it comes to Nationals is a different kind of fear. I am basically a team of one, and so I don't know ANYbody, unless my husband accompanies me. This makes it hard for me to be "up" for meets, unlike when you have a group of people who are all rooting for you, talking trash & getting you pumped up. Friends made on FB and the Forum are nice, but it's not the same as people from home, who train with you, and want to see you do well (and swim relays with you). We all have our hang ups I guess. But I'm really sorry you had to run into the biggest jerk in USMS.
