First swim competition as Masters swimmer (would be from old forum)

Alright, so I guess I started swimming about 4.5 years ago.  Posted here about it.  Doubt anyone other than Elaine recalls, and just her because it turned out that she and 67QueenMum are friends, and she lives in my hometown!

At any rate, had been hoping to do a meet for a while, but things just kept happening.  Then last year when COVID hit, I took up open water swimming.  And since I never had a good situation to train with a team, I kept at the open water stuff because I liked the people.  Decided I'd do the 10K swim the locals host, the Bridges to Bluffs swim.  Coming into this year, I had 3 goals.  I just BARELY missed two of them.  LIke by one minute for each of those (absolute time, and a person I wanted to beat).  Crushed the third goal.  Anyway, this was the first competition I have done in almost 30 years, when I was in high school.  Frist swimming competition in over 35, as I quit swimming at about age 11.

Anyway, I finally did a competition.  Wasn't a pool competition, but I did one.  And am very happy with how it went.

Parents
  • I remember your first post, too!  It's funny to hear your mom referred to as 67QueenMum.  She would get a kick out of that!

    Like King Frog, I am always on the lookout for new Forumites joining us here.  Unfortunately, the new forums seemed to have killed the traffic-- although, it was dropping off over the past few years on the old forums.

    Congratulations on crushing your one goal and putting in a great effort to accomplish your other goals!

    On Sept. 11, I competed in my first meet since Dec. '19.  My autonomic nervous system was on the fritz, so I wasn't able to really race.  I just swam my races cautiously.  My second meet was on the 24th (the Georgia Golden Olympics), and I felt really good.  I raced my first 200 fly since before COVID, and I was happy I swam it clean--- slow, but in good form.  I also raced the 50 and 100 fly and did well (for me).  My 50 breast was off, but I did REALLY well (again, for me) in the 200 backstroke.  I raced my best time since 2014, and I felt ok afterwards.  (My recent flare had subsided a few days before the meet, so I felt I could give a cautious but good attempt at racing.)  I ended up with 3 golds and 2 silvers, and I had fun!

    Good luck in your future meets, 67!

    Cheers!

    Elaine

Reply
  • I remember your first post, too!  It's funny to hear your mom referred to as 67QueenMum.  She would get a kick out of that!

    Like King Frog, I am always on the lookout for new Forumites joining us here.  Unfortunately, the new forums seemed to have killed the traffic-- although, it was dropping off over the past few years on the old forums.

    Congratulations on crushing your one goal and putting in a great effort to accomplish your other goals!

    On Sept. 11, I competed in my first meet since Dec. '19.  My autonomic nervous system was on the fritz, so I wasn't able to really race.  I just swam my races cautiously.  My second meet was on the 24th (the Georgia Golden Olympics), and I felt really good.  I raced my first 200 fly since before COVID, and I was happy I swam it clean--- slow, but in good form.  I also raced the 50 and 100 fly and did well (for me).  My 50 breast was off, but I did REALLY well (again, for me) in the 200 backstroke.  I raced my best time since 2014, and I felt ok afterwards.  (My recent flare had subsided a few days before the meet, so I felt I could give a cautious but good attempt at racing.)  I ended up with 3 golds and 2 silvers, and I had fun!

    Good luck in your future meets, 67!

    Cheers!

    Elaine

Children
  • I had not expected to be nervous.  I thought I'd be fine, I was too old for that.  I was one of the later ones to go in, so I had to wait for about 30 minutes.  I was sitting down with a heart rate of 100-110, and my resting is in the low 40's!  But I did well.  10K, had hoped to break 2:15, but swam 2:16.06.  Had hoped to be the fastest local (folks from 17 states swam), but the guy known as Fast Eddie beat me by a minute.  Had hoped to be top 10 in men, and I was 3rd.  My splits were incredibly consistent, only varying 3 seconds per 100 for the whole race.

    And yeah, I am disappointed that the forum seems to have seriously lost its activity.  Too hard to read, and I have been left with the impression that rather than address concerns the members have, USMS wants us to just suck it up and get over what the new ones look like, kind of how the standard response from one well known company to issues is "you're doing it wrong."  Traffic dropoff should be sending a message.

    Now to relearn how to swim fly.......

  • I agree.  I was part of the beta testing group, and none of my suggestions or requests were done, as far as I know.  All of our suggestions and requests ended up in a black hole-- either because they weren't willing to make those changes or it couldn't be done within the platform.  Either way, I miss the previous forums, especially back in the earlier days of my membership.  The only GOOD thing with the new forums is the disappearance of some of the previous members that I hope never return...

  • Good for you. I will do probably the Tucson Senior Olympics, maybe the polar bear and maybe the nationals next year in San Antonio.  In fact I will be in 65 to 69 age group if I do the Nationals. I figure I could place in 100 yard fly so I found that that Masters Nationals place up to 10th place.