Swimming against your age group

I would prioritize as follows: First, six events. For the first time in my experience, LCM nats this year dropped the 6th event. If I'm going to spend $1000 or more to go to a freakin' swimming meet, fer gawsh sakes, please let me swim all six events. Second, age groups. If I'm going to a national championships, fer gawsh sakes, I want to race against the top guys in my age group. As a spectator, I want to watch races for the national championship. Stevenson vs. pwb vs. others in the 500 free at Greensboro was definitely worth the price of admission. Third, timeline. I appreciate and adore all meet officials and volunteers. I'd like to get them home 20 minutes earlier too! But at the same time, I'd plead with them to stay 20 or 40 minutes longer for the benefit of the competitors, who after spending $1000+, would like to swim 6 races, and the spectators, who enjoy the thrill of victory / agony of defeat thing. I think they'd go along with that. :2cents: 1st - i agree!!! but notice it is never the 50 free that gets pulled out. the distance people always get screwed. basically what this comes down to is that...because your race takes longer it is not of the same "caliber level" as the 50free. they (the championship group) basically is saying that because your race takes so much time, we wont allow you to win a national championship. yes, you could pick the 1500 as event #1 and 800 as event #2 and 50 as event #6, but if they dont allow you to enter both the 1500 and 800 then it really didnt matter did it? no! they chose which event you can swim for you. nice isnt it? 2nd - yes, there were 7 national champions in that race. and by that i mean at that meet, 7 of us in that event won 7 different races that weekend. that was probably my worst 500 in memory. however, it gave me a lot of fire for the 100free later in the day. :D next time those guys wont be so lucky. now i've got this plastic bionic screw in my arm/shoulder holding me together for that last 50! i wish i could see a video of that race. i want to know what color my arms and back turned because they felt like stone. 3rd - the timeline is very fluid with no-shows and then somebody (as an example: enters 2:40 in the 200free and goes 3:59) can really mess with it in a big way. or say you have heat after heat where the entire heat doesnt even make the NQT/WQT.

I would prioritize as follows: First, six events. For the first time in my experience, LCM nats this year dropped the 6th event. If I'm going to spend $1000 or more to go to a freakin' swimming meet, fer gawsh sakes, please let me swim all six events. Second, age groups. If I'm going to a national championships, fer gawsh sakes, I want to race against the top guys in my age group. As a spectator, I want to watch races for the national championship. Stevenson vs. pwb vs. others in the 500 free at Greensboro was definitely worth the price of admission. Third, timeline. I appreciate and adore all meet officials and volunteers. I'd like to get them home 20 minutes earlier too! But at the same time, I'd plead with them to stay 20 or 40 minutes longer for the benefit of the competitors, who after spending $1000+, would like to swim 6 races, and the spectators, who enjoy the thrill of victory / agony of defeat thing. I think they'd go along with that. :2cents: 1st - i agree!!! but notice it is never the 50 free that gets pulled out. the distance people always get screwed. basically what this comes down to is that...because your race takes longer it is not of the same "caliber level" as the 50free. they (the championship group) basically is saying that because your race takes so much time, we wont allow you to win a national championship. yes, you could pick the 1500 as event #1 and 800 as event #2 and 50 as event #6, but if they dont allow you to enter both the 1500 and 800 then it really didnt matter did it? no! they chose which event you can swim for you. nice isnt it? 2nd - yes, there were 7 national champions in that race. and by that i mean at that meet, 7 of us in that event won 7 different races that weekend. that was probably my worst 500 in memory. however, it gave me a lot of fire for the 100free later in the day. :D next time those guys wont be so lucky. now i've got this plastic bionic screw in my arm/shoulder holding me together for that last 50! i wish i could see a video of that race. i want to know what color my arms and back turned because they felt like stone. 3rd - the timeline is very fluid with no-shows and then somebody (as an example: enters 2:40 in the 200free and goes 3:59) can really mess with it in a big way. or say you have heat after heat where the entire heat doesnt even make the NQT/WQT.