What Happened at Worlds?

I saw very little of the competition at Worlds. For me it was a blur that started on 1 August and somewhat ended with the completion of the Open Water Swim. The only races that I remember were: The fastest heat of the 200+ Mixed Free Relay was awsome. I wanted to see that heat as some of my friends from Walnut Creek were in it and then looked to see who was on the Florida and Colorado teams. All the swimmers on those teams were at least a top ten swimmer. On the last exchange, Colorado's 61 year old Rich Abrahams had a 1.36 lead over Florida's 47 year old Rowdy Gaines. Could Rowdy make up the difference? He had 14 years on him. It was a very fast last fifty, with Abrahams holding off the Olympian. The World record was broken by almost five seconds. The first four teams broke the record. All the teams in the heat broke the meet record. I saw the meets executive director Anne Cribbs swim the breaststroke and freestyle. She had fun. I saw Debbie Meyer swim the 200 freestyle and I saw Jacki Hirsty win one of her events from the outside lane. I met the good Smith and the bad Smith near the top of the stairs one day. I still am not sure whether Paul is the good Smith or John is. It looked like swimmers were have a great time in the tent village that sprang up on the west side of the aquatic center. There appeared to be a lot of trading of t-shirts and swim caps there. On Saturday morning, I watched the USMS Fighting Flamingos win their match to secure the bronze medal, later that night there were four very good water polo games in the Avery Aquatic Center. I did swim the 400 freestyle. If I would have swum it 39 seconds faster, I would have made the qualifying time. It did feel good to be in the water. I would be interested in hearing any stories or vignettes about worlds and also if you were able to do well trading t-shirts or pins. For those who would like to see great pictures of the meet go to http://www.isiphotos.com I hope all who attended had a good time. michael