I am a middle aged woman with no competitive swim experience. I have been swimming with a master's group for about a year now. My training has been mostly open water and triathlon distances 750 to 1500 meters with very little work on starts and turns or swim meet distances. I've done pretty well with open water distances, but am not very good at sprinting. I can dive off the blocks pretty well, but my flip turns are worse than my open turns. My local YMCA is hosting their first masters swim meet in years. I figured I would participate for the fun of it with no expectation of being competitive. Furthermore, they expect so few competitors that the age groups and gender groups will be combined. My main goal is to have fun and not be DQd from my events. Any advice on making it a good day?
Neither have I ever entered a meet. There are so few in upstate NY that I may have only 2 or 3 chances per year without extensive travel. Coming from the world of running where I have a choice of 2 or 3 road races every single weekend and 8 or 10 track & field meets every summer, this is disheartening. Open water swims are not much more common. With so few chances, one feels like to falter in any way is to fail for the entire season.
Neither have I ever entered a meet. There are so few in upstate NY that I may have only 2 or 3 chances per year without extensive travel. Coming from the world of running where I have a choice of 2 or 3 road races every single weekend and 8 or 10 track & field meets every summer, this is disheartening. Open water swims are not much more common. With so few chances, one feels like to falter in any way is to fail for the entire season.
