Would you scratch?

Kristin, I was with your friends behind the blocks cheering you on and I can assure you they weren't "sympathetic". They were saying great things about you and how well you were doing! It was all good! :cheerleader: Congratulations for doing such a great job. Good luck tomorrow; I'll see you there! Cheers! :chug:

Your 400 IM was great!!! If you loafed the fly like you said and split it at 1:22, maybe you should consider taking up the 100 Fly as well!! It was fun to watch and cheer you on. Marianne, it was fun cheering both you and Kristin on! You rocked today! :cheerleader: Congratulations on killing your seed times by a ton! Good luck tomorrow; we'll see you there. Sorry I will miss your 500, tomorrow, though. My first event isn't until the 100 breaststroke, so I'm going to cruise in around the same time I got there today and warm up in the 50m pool.

The race went great -- Judd, you're right! I LOVED it!! I split 1:22/1:23/1:38/1:14 and ended up going 5:38.03. I couldn't believe how much easier it was than I thought it would be. I know that with swimming it more, and I WILL swim it more, I'll be able to fine-tune my pacing and hopefully will eventually be able to go sub-5:30. :applaud: Well done!! :applaud: Bravo!! :applaud: Standing O!! :applaud: See I told you! It's the best event in the pool! It's as much fun as you can have at a meet! And the breaststroke pullouts?? You know, the part where it feels like somebody set your lungs on fire?? I guess I forgot to mention that detail ... but you did great! Excellent swim! And ... excellent time, too! Last year that time would have been in the top 30, and if you can go sub 5:30, you'll be in the top 20! I think you've found a new event! Congratulations!

Congrats on your swim! What pretty splits! I'm not sure yet if I'm going to Auburn nats, but if I do I'll be sure to look you up. Maybe we can even swim the 4IM together!

To those of you who are debating swimming this race, do it at least once. The feeling of the last 50 is amazing! Great job! After reading this thread, I'm now looking forward to doing it, instead of wondering what the heck I was thinking and debating, like you, whether or not I should scratch. Fortunately, in my case it's the very first event, so if it goes well, I should be pumped for everything else. Thanks again for starting this thread. :)

Aha, so you must be the Kristin who is always ahead of me in the GTD age-group rankings! Thanks for the kind words, Auburn was an unexpectedly good meet for me. It's too bad we never got a chance to meet in person there though--if I'm at a meet down that way with you again I'll definitely make a point of introducing myself! Absolutely! I'd love to meet you! Are you going to be at LCM Nats this year?

OK... the deed is done. :) First off, the rest of my meet today was mediocre to fairly crappy. However, I'm really not sure how much of that is the lack of the B70/full body suits, as the only events I've swum well this SCY season are the ones I never swam in the magic suits. So... I'm thinking that I need to reset my expectations for my freestyle. I knew I'd have to do this (as I know many of us did), but I just didn't think I'd have to reset them so drastically. Anyway... the meet went relatively quickly, with not much rest between events. I swam the 1000, the 50 free, 200 free, and then about 30 minutes after the 200 was the 400 IM. My 200 was the worst, possibly because I was worried about swimming it too hard and not being able to finish the 400 IM. I was determined to keep a positive attitude, though, which to those who know me, that isn't always easy for me to do. :) I was in the first of two heats, as they swam the 400 IM slow to fast. I had seeded myself at 6:00, which I felt was conservatively realistic based on my 200 IM time. I decided to take the great advice I received on this thread (love the loaf/loaf/loaf/loaf faster advice for fly, but have to admit that I forgot about outsplitting my heat in one stroke until I was on the 2nd 25 of my free. I did speed up at that point)! My friends, knowing how worried (neurotic) I was, were all standing at the end of my lane cheering for me -- hopefully not in an overly sympathetic way. The race went great -- Judd, you're right! I LOVED it!! I split 1:22/1:23/1:38/1:14 and ended up going 5:38.03. I couldn't believe how much easier it was than I thought it would be. I know that with swimming it more, and I WILL swim it more, I'll be able to fine-tune my pacing and hopefully will eventually be able to go sub-5:30. Thanks to all of you for your encouragement. I do appreciate it, and if I have all crappy races tomorrow, I will still have the 400 IM! To those of you who are debating swimming this race, do it at least once. The feeling of the last 50 is amazing!

Edit: Janet, I recognized your name -- I think you are in my age group, and beat me at several events at the Auburn meet. :-) Nice swimming! Aha, so you must be the Kristin who is always ahead of me in the GTD age-group rankings! Thanks for the kind words, Auburn was an unexpectedly good meet for me. It's too bad we never got a chance to meet in person there though--if I'm at a meet down that way with you again I'll definitely make a point of introducing myself!

You did great, Dave and I were in the stands watching. You were strong throughout, just like I thought you'd be! :applaud:

OK... the deed is done. :) First off, the rest of my meet today was mediocre to fairly crappy. However, I'm really not sure how much of that is the lack of the B70/full body suits, as the only events I've swum well this SCY season are the ones I never swam in the magic suits. So... I'm thinking that I need to reset my expectations for my freestyle. I knew I'd have to do this (as I know many of us did), but I just didn't think I'd have to reset them so drastically. Anyway... the meet went relatively quickly, with not much rest between events. I swam the 1000, the 50 free, 200 free, and then about 30 minutes after the 200 was the 400 IM. My 200 was the worst, possibly because I was worried about swimming it too hard and not being able to finish the 400 IM. I was determined to keep a positive attitude, though, which to those who know me, that isn't always easy for me to do. :) I was in the first of two heats, as they swam the 400 IM slow to fast. I had seeded myself at 6:00, which I felt was conservatively realistic based on my 200 IM time. I decided to take the great advice I received on this thread (love the loaf/loaf/loaf/loaf faster advice for fly, but have to admit that I forgot about outsplitting my heat in one stroke until I was on the 2nd 25 of my free. I did speed up at that point)! My friends, knowing how worried (neurotic) I was, were all standing at the end of my lane cheering for me -- hopefully not in an overly sympathetic way. The race went great -- Judd, you're right! I LOVED it!! I split 1:22/1:23/1:38/1:14 and ended up going 5:38.03. I couldn't believe how much easier it was than I thought it would be. I know that with swimming it more, and I WILL swim it more, I'll be able to fine-tune my pacing and hopefully will eventually be able to go sub-5:30. Thanks to all of you for your encouragement. I do appreciate it, and if I have all crappy races tomorrow, I will still have the 400 IM! To those of you who are debating swimming this race, do it at least once. The feeling of the last 50 is amazing! Great job!! See, I told you you'd love the feeling after.