Let me first say that I had a blast in Atlanta and enjoyed every minute of it (even the last minute of the 1000), so this list is somewhat tongue in cheek:
10. No Starbucks within walking distance of the Hampton Inn.
9. The taste of an Italian soda called "Beverly" at the Coca Cola Museum; it reminded me of viscous lidocaine--what is with that?
8. The stairway access to the pool deck from the stands.
7. Missing out on a medal in the 200 free relay because eight of the teams finishing ahead of us were from "regional" clubs representing entire states.
6. Two swimmers from TXLA trying to recruit my 87 year old father to join their team instead of swimming for Nitro.
5. No Starbucks within walkiing distance of the pool.
4. Turning at the bulkhead, although I nailed all of mine.
3. That one starter who shall remain nameless.
2. Not getting to meet Rich Abrahams, among others.
1. It ended.
In 2000 everybody was shocked when 1380 swimmers entered Nationals at UMBC. The previous largest LCM Nationals was Ann Arbor in 1996 with 1176 swimmers (FYI those are still the largest two LCM meets to this date). So when Rutgers won the bid for 2003 LC Nats, everybody assumed it would be an even larger meet because of the proximity to New York and New England while also including the masses that attended UMBC Nationals. Therefore USMS put heavy pressure on Rutgers to build a temporary pool due to the shortage of indoor warm up space. And since so many swimmers would be attending, the cost would be easy to absorb. However, the meet only attracted 876 swimmers :confused: And since the overwhelming majority of swimmers enter one week prior to the deadline, the host had no idea the number of swimmers would be this small until ~5 weeks before the meet and it was too late to call off the temporary pool.
What is the lesson learned? We are not very good with predicting the size of meets. And having an entry deadline even closer to the meet can really make it a challenge to a host trying to plan a meet when they have no idea how many swimmers are coming. FYI there were 1014 swimmers entered for Atlanta 10 days before the entry deadline (1975 after the deadline).
Jeff
In 2000 everybody was shocked when 1380 swimmers entered Nationals at UMBC. The previous largest LCM Nationals was Ann Arbor in 1996 with 1176 swimmers (FYI those are still the largest two LCM meets to this date). So when Rutgers won the bid for 2003 LC Nats, everybody assumed it would be an even larger meet because of the proximity to New York and New England while also including the masses that attended UMBC Nationals. Therefore USMS put heavy pressure on Rutgers to build a temporary pool due to the shortage of indoor warm up space. And since so many swimmers would be attending, the cost would be easy to absorb. However, the meet only attracted 876 swimmers :confused: And since the overwhelming majority of swimmers enter one week prior to the deadline, the host had no idea the number of swimmers would be this small until ~5 weeks before the meet and it was too late to call off the temporary pool.
What is the lesson learned? We are not very good with predicting the size of meets. And having an entry deadline even closer to the meet can really make it a challenge to a host trying to plan a meet when they have no idea how many swimmers are coming. FYI there were 1014 swimmers entered for Atlanta 10 days before the entry deadline (1975 after the deadline).
Jeff
