Thinking about doing my first meet in 2 years...but worried!
Former Member
I have moved to a new area (Arlington, VA), and I have gotten back into Masters Swimming training. I think I want to compete in an upcoming meet (Colonies Zone LCM Champs in Richmond on 6/22) but I am worried because my times are still WAY slow. I am thinking about competing in the 50 & 100 back and maybe 50 free.
My times are slow enough that I will probably finish not only LAST but DEAD LAST in the first heat. Any points that I get for my team (Arlington Masters - but no one from there is signed up yet) will be won by default. 1st-3rd place medals will be out of the question, unless I happen to win one because there is that few people competing in my age group. Which would be probably embarrassing given what my times will be.
Should I wait until the fall or even winter when my times are probably a lot faster? Or just compete anyway?
Totally agree with other responses. DO THE MEET!
I got back in the pool recently and felt the same way you do, but the meets are a ton of fun and I find they also serve to spur me on to work harder in practice. I use meets to get benchmark times for events and then compete against those times in subsequent meets (the really fun ones are the events I do once per year - love watching those times drop!). Trust me, you're the only one that cares about how your times look. Everyone else is just supportive of your efforts to show up and compete!
I also felt the same way about getting awards for being the only one to show up, etc, but someone very wise in the ways of Masters swimming once told me that you should look at it from the perspective that you earned it because you were the one that cared enough to show up and do it!
Totally agree with other responses. DO THE MEET!
I got back in the pool recently and felt the same way you do, but the meets are a ton of fun and I find they also serve to spur me on to work harder in practice. I use meets to get benchmark times for events and then compete against those times in subsequent meets (the really fun ones are the events I do once per year - love watching those times drop!). Trust me, you're the only one that cares about how your times look. Everyone else is just supportive of your efforts to show up and compete!
I also felt the same way about getting awards for being the only one to show up, etc, but someone very wise in the ways of Masters swimming once told me that you should look at it from the perspective that you earned it because you were the one that cared enough to show up and do it!
