Your best, most memorable swim/race and why.....

Here's my promised story (in case anyone does not remember): I was 20, swimming on the Guezira Club team in Cairo, Egypt. We were the champs (Men's and Ladies' Opens). The Nationals came up and our main competitor, the Heliolido club threw a gauntlet down that we had to pick up (and the federation went along). A 10 x 100m (LCM) Free Relay. I was -at the time- maybe the sixth or seventh fastest sprinter on our team, but ........................... I did not practice regularly. Therefore our coach decided that we would start with our best starter, then from 2nd swimmer up to anchor, go with me as number 2 then with good, better, best and superduper. He did explain to me that he wasn't sure I could do my best time of 1:04.2 and that's why he was giving the team eight opportunities to make up for my poor performance ("if it came to that", he had the kindness to say). Our lead swimmer finishes second to Heliolido's by about 5 meters. Here I am on the block, waiting for him, and watching Heliolido's number 2 swimming away. I concentrate on not false-starting and getting DQ'ed. Back then, goggles were a thing that we only saw used by Scuba Divers and had only heard that swimmers used. One advantage of swimming without goggles is that you get better peripheral (if somewhat blurred) vision. Somehow, once I hit the water, I completely forgot that I was supposed to -more or less- give only 98% going out so as to have something left in the tank for the 2nd 50 and I went all out. I can remember that first 50m of mine so clearly. I breathe on my left and Heliolido was to our right but out of my right eye I could see -far away and ahead- the other guy's kicking feet and the whitewater he was producing and I was gaining ground. I caught up with him at the turn and even now, as I type, I can see him, to my left, falling behind. I touched about 5m ahead of him. The wonderful part about this story is that we kept that lead up to the last touch (plus or minus a few centimetres). Needless to say all my nine team-mates made me feel like a king that day (and that evening at the party). My non-official (relay) time was better than my official PB by ..... Oh! ..... around four seconds. The coach said, "1 Minute Zero" (in French, BTW). I can still see the colour of the pool water that day, still smell the weak chlorine (they had weakened it for the Championship), still remember the water rushing by my eyes as I breathed, the turn, the touch as I looked back at their number 2 as our number 3 was flying over me. Was it George B. Shaw who said, "Youth is a wonderful thing. Pity it's wasted on the young."? If I knew then what I think I know now, I now know I would have practiced then. There's a tune that's been popping in my head since, two, three paragraphs ago. "Thanks for the memories". This Forum has given me the opportunity to relive that race, occasion, day (and let's not forget the celebratory party). Thanks

Here's my promised story (in case anyone does not remember): I was 20, swimming on the Guezira Club team in Cairo, Egypt. We were the champs (Men's and Ladies' Opens). The Nationals came up and our main competitor, the Heliolido club threw a gauntlet down that we had to pick up (and the federation went along). A 10 x 100m (LCM) Free Relay. I was -at the time- maybe the sixth or seventh fastest sprinter on our team, but ........................... I did not practice regularly. Therefore our coach decided that we would start with our best starter, then from 2nd swimmer up to anchor, go with me as number 2 then with good, better, best and superduper. He did explain to me that he wasn't sure I could do my best time of 1:04.2 and that's why he was giving the team eight opportunities to make up for my poor performance ("if it came to that", he had the kindness to say). Our lead swimmer finishes second to Heliolido's by about 5 meters. Here I am on the block, waiting for him, and watching Heliolido's number 2 swimming away. I concentrate on not false-starting and getting DQ'ed. Back then, goggles were a thing that we only saw used by Scuba Divers and had only heard that swimmers used. One advantage of swimming without goggles is that you get better peripheral (if somewhat blurred) vision. Somehow, once I hit the water, I completely forgot that I was supposed to -more or less- give only 98% going out so as to have something left in the tank for the 2nd 50 and I went all out. I can remember that first 50m of mine so clearly. I breathe on my left and Heliolido was to our right but out of my right eye I could see -far away and ahead- the other guy's kicking feet and the whitewater he was producing and I was gaining ground. I caught up with him at the turn and even now, as I type, I can see him, to my left, falling behind. I touched about 5m ahead of him. The wonderful part about this story is that we kept that lead up to the last touch (plus or minus a few centimetres). Needless to say all my nine team-mates made me feel like a king that day (and that evening at the party). My non-official (relay) time was better than my official PB by ..... Oh! ..... around four seconds. The coach said, "1 Minute Zero" (in French, BTW). I can still see the colour of the pool water that day, still smell the weak chlorine (they had weakened it for the Championship), still remember the water rushing by my eyes as I breathed, the turn, the touch as I looked back at their number 2 as our number 3 was flying over me. Was it George B. Shaw who said, "Youth is a wonderful thing. Pity it's wasted on the young."? If I knew then what I think I know now, I now know I would have practiced then. There's a tune that's been popping in my head since, two, three paragraphs ago. "Thanks for the memories". This Forum has given me the opportunity to relive that race, occasion, day (and let's not forget the celebratory party). Thanks