Did you meet your goals at nationals?

It was an awesome meet. Very well run. Kudos to those who hosted. This was my 2nd Nationals and I hoped only to improve on my times, particularly my 50 and 100 back, since my focus since January has been backstroke. I had 3 LIFETIME personal bests out of the 5 events I swam: 50 free I dropped 0.15s 50 back I dropped 1.82s 100 back I dropped 3.71s BTW I got a 10th place (M55-59)in the 50 back. As I have been swimming for only 8 years I was ecstatic!

Achieved a goal I set for myself five years ago when I joined USMS--placing at short course Nationals (1000 free) Set Masters PBs in the 200 and 500 (but missed my goal times of sub 2:00 and sub 5:30) Met Paul Smith and his lovely wife Laura (herself a national champion now) Saw some great swims by several forumites (Fort's 100 back and IM, Paul's 200, 500 and 1000 free, and Kirk Nelson, Frank Thompson, Mark Mattson, and Jim Clemmons in the 500).

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! Kirk, you won the mile(!) so way to go. Anyhow, not being a miler myself I feel a little unqualified to make this statement, but nonetheless, I think having the mile be your first race is quite a disadvantage. 17 hard minutes of swimming takes alot out of anyone. So it really is true that you would ahve been a lot faster in any of your races had the mile not been on Thursday...

I wanted to go under 20 minutes in the 1650, and went 18:37.96 Wow, you knocked that one out of the park!

Wow, you knocked that one out of the park! Thanks! I sure was surprised :).

I did OK. PR'd 5 out of 5 events, usually by a very healthy margin; won my gridge with my brother and covered, by the skin of my teeth, the granny spread P. Wolf foolishly conceded me in the 50 free; just missed getting my 200 free under 2:00, down from a 2:04 just a couple months ago; rode the coattails of some very fast Oregon women to 2 relay medals; had a great time with my teammates; and got to swim in the best facility I've ever seen at the best run meet I've ever attended. I was smart enough not to gridge with my brother in anything longer than a 100; he hit the Top 10 in the 1650 in his first meet since 5th grade. Nice. I did a lousy job at meeting folks and socializing, but between having my brother there for a couple days, a bunch of Oregon folks whom I didn't know very well to get to know, and just generally being thrashed every day, I didn't get out much. I did manage to swill some free beer Sunday eve, but we had to be up and out early Monday am and called it a day fairly early. I got to see Kirk's first place 1650 from the bulkhead, which was cool, although it was a little depressing when he took out his 200 faster than I had gone up to that point. Very nice swim. All in all, a great meet. Hope to see some of you folks in Oregon this summer.

I met most of mine. I wanted to go under 20 minutes in the 1650, and went 18:37.96 I wanted to go 2:06 in the 200 back, I went 2:04.97 I wanted to go under 1 minute in the 100 back, and went 57.9 I didn't care much for the 50 back because I can't sprint, but just wanted to work a nice long SDK. I went 27.5, which is almost as fast as I was in college. I wanted to beat my seed in the 200 *** and did that with a 2:30.15. I secretly wanted to go under 2:30, though, so this was a half-met...

yes, definitely met my goals at nationals and had a great time. 1) PRed all 6 swims. 2) swam within 10% of college best times (was within 6.5%) 3) Finish within top ten in individual race 4) get a top ten time (was on a relay with some really fast chicks), so we should be top ten. 5) Hung out with my teammates and cheered for them in their races. Really enjoyed swimming at such a great facility and meeting folks. Time to work on new goals now, hope to see you all at LC nationals in Oregon. --mj

Almost all of them, but certainly the most imprtant one: To see Aaron Peirsol!!! Really, the trip was fun, the pool was great, and I swam PBs in 5/6 swims, but my main goal was to see some Olympians (AP in particular). Thanks to Aaron showing up on day two, I would have gone home happy regardless. Thanks to the organizers for a well run meet, and to Ande for some great restaurant recommendations. Austin was a blast--next time I'm staying for the after-party!

You had some awesome swims, Jan! Thanks, mctrusty! Looks like you had a great meet too!