Last year (summer) I participated in my first two swim meets (ever!). I went to Summer Nationals in Omaha and also swam in the Iowa Games, here in Iowa. I really enjoyed both. The latter was much more laid back and super fun and made me want to do more meets! The problem is, we don't have many around here.
Iowa is part of the breadbasket zone. There are a handful of meets in MN, KS, MO, etc... and the zone meet (lucky for me) is just east of Des Moines (where I live). But I find that most of the meets I'm able to find that are within 4hrs drive of me are in the Great Lakes zone. Does anyone have to swim out of their zone in order to attend more meets? With 5 kids (who are also all swimmers) and only one vehicle, it's quite challenging to have to travel to get to meets. Is it weird to attend more meets in another zone (I'm assuming it's not against the rules?)?
Just random questions as I'm still quite new to all of this. I'm excited to be a Masters member and really enjoy competing, but it's a lot of work in my particular area. My local Masters group decided last year to go summer only, leaving me only about 6-7wks of swimming with a Masters group. The rest of the year I'm on my own. Luckily my kids' coach is nice enough to let me join their practices and I've been swimming with them for their whole fall/winter season - they're not a USA team though but just a local age group team.
Anyway... What do you all do? How far do you travel to compete? Do you drive a bit farther to get to Masters meet? or if there aren't any, do you just swim the USAS meets?
I usually do 2-3 local meets per year, and for the past 2 years I've done the New England Masters SCM meet in Boston. My coaches usually put on a few good meets a year and encourage everyone from our team to participate. There typically are other meets in our LMSC, but I haven't done any for a long time.
Some swimmers complain that we don't have enough meets, but I'd guess there's about 10-12 masters meets in AZ every year. That certainly seems like more than enough for me. Other than going to the Boston meet, I typically don't have to drive more than 20 min to a meet.
Do you have family or other friends that you visit in the Boston area, or just frequent flyer miles burning a hole in your pocket?
Check this out: www.timeanddate.com/.../distances.html
I don't think that the residents of USMS hotbeds like southern California have any idea how lucky they have it.
Not only do we know how lucky and blessed we are, we like to share! Come almost any weekend to Southern California and you will find a meet to enjoy.
Better yet, our pools are all at least as long as advertised. Your records are safe here.
Yeah. I'm looking forward to our next trip to CA so that I can find a meet to swim while I'm there. :) We lived there until 6 years ago, it's a shame I didn't join Masters until 2012! But we have family in both Northern and Southern CA, so not only can we visit but it would be a chance for a meet without a hotel stay!
