Did you meet your goals at nationals?

NOOOOO! I didn't get to go due to a bout of frozen shoulder and an injured back. Maybe next year? I got a whole bunch of reasons why I didn't go...don't get me started! lol

I hit most of my goals at Nats. I really had 2 sets of goals so the first was what I expected and the second was what I hoped for. 50 Fly - Expected 25.99, hoped for 25.5. Would have gone that but my breakout off the start was very poor. Went 26.03. 50 Free - Expected 23.20, hoped for 22.xx, swam 23.63 - this one was a puzzling disappointment as I don't know what went wrong. 100 IM - Expected 1:00.99, hoped for 59.99 - went 1:00.68 and I feel good that I will go faster as I'm still working on my back and ***. 100 Back - Expected 1:03 low, hoped for mid 1:02, went 1:02.77 and I can go faster as my stroke is still not very good. 50 Back - Expected 29.00, hoped for 28.50, went 28.06 and if I had nailed my finish would have gone under 28. This was my high water mark for the meet. I looked up at the board and didn't believe the time. I was on cloud 9. 100 Free - Expected sub 52, hoped for 51 low, went 52.85 - swam this race horribly, maybe it was the last event of the last day, maybe I was just too tired but my freestyle events in this meet were a disappointment but the other 4 events MORE than made up for it. Paul 2009 LCM Nationals in Indy - I'm coming for you.

didn't make any of mine. my main goals were to beat the older, larger Smith at everything but I couldn't even do it in the 1000 where he rolled over on his back and did a whale imitation while warming down after setting the record in the first 100. oh well, there's always next year...

Yes, I did reach my goals. And I swam, too. Thanks for asking! :bouncing:

Jazz said it best: this was so much fun it will keep me inspired for a long, long time. As for the swimming, I did post 3 of 3 PB, but I wanted more. Just goes to show we are often our own harshest critics.

Met all of my goals and then some: 1) Beat my seed times (and since they were my times from last year's Nationals, I was really happy with that). 2) Beat SOMEBODY (i.e., don't come in last in anything--I know somebody has to, but I didn't want it to be me). 3) Sneak in a medal. Thanks to an inspirational speech from Errol Graham ("You girls swim your a**es off!") my medley relay got 8th! Also had a lot of fun, ate at some neat restaurants, met some nice new people, and reconnected with lots of old friends. It was a fantastic meet!

Met all of my goals and then some: 1) Beat my seed times (and since they were my times from last year's Nationals, I was really happy with that). 2) Beat SOMEBODY (i.e., don't come in last in anything--I know somebody has to, but I didn't want it to be me). 3) Sneak in a medal. Thanks to an inspirational speech from Errol Graham ("You girls swim your a**es off!") my medley relay got 8th! Also had a lot of fun, ate at some neat restaurants, met some nice new people, and reconnected with lots of old friends. It was a fantastic meet! Haha #2 is usually my goal at any meet!

I was really happy with my free swims. This season I totally surpassed my goals in 3 of my 4 events (50 free, 100 free and 50 fly). After spending a day thinking of taking a long break from the 100 fly I have decided to work on what needs fixing and do it at LCM Nats provided I go. (My swimming threats never last long) GREAT, GREAT, AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL Meet. LOVED meeting everyone and watching all the swims.

I met almost all of my goals in Austin. 1) Get a Medal: yep, got two, 1000 free and 200 back 2) Improve all my times from last year: made that, with the exception of getting the exact same time as last year in the 50 free (23.98, at least I got under 24) 3) Swim some relays: Yes, thanks to the generous Oregon swimmers who took me in for the week, and Bill V who swam a relay so the other three of us could swim once more, thanks Bill. 4) Go to every bar in Austin: Not met, but I did give it the old college try:whiteflag: 5) Watch some really fast swims: Met for sure, watching the Smiths, Josh Davis, Michael Ross and others was very inspiring and lots of fun. So, with the exception of number 4, it was a highly successful meet!

I have to say I had a great meet overall. Masters bests in all my events, however I did leave a couple goals unattained. That's the thing about this sport, no matter what you do there's always something you could have done better! On the positive side, my 1650 free was excellent and winning my first event at Nationals was exciting! My goal in the event was under 17:30. I went 17:16, so just a hair under a 1:03 pace per 100. I split the thing absolutely consistently. I think I negative split by about two seconds. My 400 IM was also good for me at 4:28. 2:06 in the 200 fly was good and I split it pretty well. 2:07 in the 200 IM was another masters best and seeing how it was my last event of the meet it was a keeper. I placed top ten in all these events. The downside were my 200 and 500 free. Both were bests by a very slim margin, but I really expected to be faster considering how I swam in the mile. My 200 free was a 1:50.13. My previous best was 1:50.18 from 2005. I looked at the splits between the two races and every single 50 was within 0.1 second! That kind of consistency is a little crazy. I really thought I could go about a 1:48. Same deal with the 500. After swimming a 5:00.8 three weeks ago I thought I'd be around 4:55, but instead I just missed going under the 5:00 barrier (again) with a 5:00.36. In fact, the final 50 in my 500 was slower than the final 50 in my 1650. If I just could have come home as well. Also, I finished third and the winner was 4:58 (Erik Hochstein decided to go for a 200 split otherwise he would have won easily), so I feel like I could have won my second event with a good swim. Oh well, lots of "could haves" in swimming. In retrospect I may have bitten off a little more than I could chew. I swam the maximum possible yardage at the meet and swam three relays. That was probably too much and I was hurting by the end of the meet. I might have to reconsider my event selection next time. Sorry for the long-winded post. I've got a lot on my mind after this meet!