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?
(I should probably have read the title of your post more carefully, shannalee - now I see that this would be your first meet in two years. I was thinking you were considering your first master's meet ever. So probably not much of what I said below will apply to you. Oh well.)
Here's a couple good things I got out of trying a meet last year, which may or may not apply to you:
I swam for fitness for several years before going to that first meet, just to see what it would be like (my last meet was in high school in the '80s). I'm glad I did it because I discovered - and I was quite surprised by it - that fitness swimming really doesn't prepare your body for high output activity - and I want my body to be able to engage in an occasional all-out effort. It just seems like a part of being fit and healthy - a part that I wasn't getting from fitness swimming, and that I wasn't even aware of till I tried racing.
So after that, I joined the local master's team. Now I try to do a meet every now and then because I find it makes swimming much more interesting. There is always something I discover at each meet that I want to do better. So my practice time in the pool is more focused and purposeful. It's a lot more engaging that way - and it also motivates me to show up more regularly. (I say this after missing both team practices last week, but hey - life happens.)
Extra bonus reason to do the meet: If you're slow now, you'll just see that much more improvement the next time!
(I should probably have read the title of your post more carefully, shannalee - now I see that this would be your first meet in two years. I was thinking you were considering your first master's meet ever. So probably not much of what I said below will apply to you. Oh well.)
Here's a couple good things I got out of trying a meet last year, which may or may not apply to you:
I swam for fitness for several years before going to that first meet, just to see what it would be like (my last meet was in high school in the '80s). I'm glad I did it because I discovered - and I was quite surprised by it - that fitness swimming really doesn't prepare your body for high output activity - and I want my body to be able to engage in an occasional all-out effort. It just seems like a part of being fit and healthy - a part that I wasn't getting from fitness swimming, and that I wasn't even aware of till I tried racing.
So after that, I joined the local master's team. Now I try to do a meet every now and then because I find it makes swimming much more interesting. There is always something I discover at each meet that I want to do better. So my practice time in the pool is more focused and purposeful. It's a lot more engaging that way - and it also motivates me to show up more regularly. (I say this after missing both team practices last week, but hey - life happens.)
Extra bonus reason to do the meet: If you're slow now, you'll just see that much more improvement the next time!
