I'm guilty of it. I imagine we're all guilty of it: seeing a meet announcement and seeing our favorite two events back to back, or four events we want to swim on one day and then only 1 then next day. We get irritated and wonder why the meet director couldn't have designed this to better suit our needs? We moan at workout, whine on the forums, ***** on our blogs, etc. I'd like to encourage my fellow forumites to join me in taking a pledge:
I hereby pledge to:
just be grateful that there are volunteers, teams and facilities willing to host Masters meets,
recognize that no matter how hard these dedicated volunteers try, they'll never be able to create the order of events that satisfies all Masters swimmer,
recognize that, even if I can't swim those two favorite events in this meet because they are back to back (or whatever my complaint is), I've got a multi-decade Masters career ahead of me in which to swim them at different meets,
to, therefore, stop whining/moaning about the order of events, and
look at a different order of events as an opportunity to branch out and try new events!
Signed,
Patrick "Indebted to Masters Meet Directors/Officials/Volunteers" Brundage
I need a judge's ruling from Geek about whether this violates the spirit of the pledge. Personally, I detect a certain amount of whining in this "innocent" question. And I can't escape the sense that, if men traditionally went first, sprinters would question that practice as well.
I freely admit that I may be projecting the stereotypical diva sprinter behavior on what may have been a simple request for information.
I was mostly wondering if, as Karl notes, it was an anachronistic "ladies first" issue.
However, you correctly detected that it did cross my mind at NE SCM Champs the last few years that I could sleep another 30-40 minutes if it wasn't always ladies first. :D
I agree that events should be changed once in awhile to avoid past complaints. And 50 back should not be last so often!
I need a judge's ruling from Geek about whether this violates the spirit of the pledge. Personally, I detect a certain amount of whining in this "innocent" question. And I can't escape the sense that, if men traditionally went first, sprinters would question that practice as well.
I freely admit that I may be projecting the stereotypical diva sprinter behavior on what may have been a simple request for information.
I was mostly wondering if, as Karl notes, it was an anachronistic "ladies first" issue.
However, you correctly detected that it did cross my mind at NE SCM Champs the last few years that I could sleep another 30-40 minutes if it wasn't always ladies first. :D
I agree that events should be changed once in awhile to avoid past complaints. And 50 back should not be last so often!
