Six months ago I decided to take a shot at a top ten time (my first) for the 400 free. Historically, a 4:48 has always been fast enough in my new age group (50-54), but my best time in Masters was a 4:59 from three years ago. So I decided to focus on that one event. I trained hard, bought a Blue 70, and hit my taper just right. In the end I swam what I thought was a perfect race and finished in 4:47.73, beating one of my training partners by seven seconds. And then I waited to see if the time would hold up.
As it turns out, it didn't. With the results from Long Beach, I will end the season ranked no higher than 11th. As the saying goes, the journey is the destination. But I really wanted one of those patches.
Gull, that is the story of my life - I'm always getting juuuuuuuuuuust bumped out in the events (and courses) in which I'd really like to get a top 10 time. But like Tom suggested, I've been swimming some of the not-so-popular events to get my patches. I'm almost never in SCY (I'd love to show up in the 500), but can be found throughout the SCM and LCM rankings for all kinds of random events - including an AA time in the 1500 LCM in '07.
Nevertheless, that is an awesome time! Congratulations on your time drop!
Gull, that is the story of my life - I'm always getting juuuuuuuuuuust bumped out in the events (and courses) in which I'd really like to get a top 10 time. But like Tom suggested, I've been swimming some of the not-so-popular events to get my patches. I'm almost never in SCY (I'd love to show up in the 500), but can be found throughout the SCM and LCM rankings for all kinds of random events - including an AA time in the 1500 LCM in '07.
Nevertheless, that is an awesome time! Congratulations on your time drop!
