New England Masters Swim Champsionships

Wanna be truly impressed?
Go read my friend Alina's report of this meet. She is scary fast. scary. She got first in her AG in like every event she swam. I've known her forever, and she still stuns me.

I signed up for this meet very late. It doesn't exactly fit in with my training right now. Still, I wanted to swim at a meet with Alina! She encouraged me to sign up with Maine Masters. So what if I am a MA-hole? I now belong to three groups: Greater Norwood Running Club in MA, Team Nor'Easter in ME (tri) and Maine Masters. I am just a Mainer at heart... I can't help it.

I signed up for the 500 free, the 100 IM and the 50 fly. I wanted to swim the 500, and those other two events immediately followed the 500, so I signed up for them too. I do love the fly and IM.

The pool, Blodgett Pool at Harvard, is gigantic and gorgeous. The water just feels fast. Alina let me borrow her fancy black skin suit for the 500, so I was feeling really fit and fast before the race even started. I did 1000 warm up and a few starts.

I was seeded 17th out of 25 in my AG, but oh well. The New England Championships bring out the best, right? I tried to swallow my pride. I found a new friend (Amy from Maine Masters) to count for me, and I headed down to the pool.

I was in a pretty early heat, given that I was so slow compared to the rest of these speed swimmers. This meet was so large that it was run like machine. As soon as the previous heat touched in, the gun went off for the next heat. No exaggeration. So, the girl in my heat touched, then the rest of the heat, and then BEEP! We were off.

I was like lightning.
For 100 yards.
1:11.
Then I felt it.
Barf.
Coming.
So I slowed down.
Next 100
1:24.
Okay!
I kept hitting 50s in like 41 or 42 and I finished the race in 6:48. I think that's like 1:21/1:22 per 100. I was pretty happy with it, especially given that after the first 100 I thought I might vomit my Gu into the pool. This seems to be a theme in my racing lately. I had to be in the top 16 to get a point for the team. I was 17th. Damn!

Alina showed up a little while later. Yeah! My friend! We hung out for a bit, and then she went warm up. I waited, but then, reluctantly, went to warm up too. I was tired from that 500! I didn't want to get wet and cold and tired again! I did another 300.

Luckily, the 100IM and the 50 fly are so fast that the hurt barely registers before the event is over.

I still had on Alina's snazzy suit for the IM, b/c she didn't need it until the 50 fly. I was in the 10th heat of 21 for this event. Not so bad....
The previous heat was on the last length of the pool and I stepped onto the blocks. They touched and BEEP! Off again.
I love the fly.
Especially when I only have to do one length of it.
I love the back.
I was smoking everyone.
Until the breastroke. Who invented the breaststroke? I hate it. And I suck at it.
Then bring it home! I could hear Alina screaming at me at the end of the pool as I turned and started the free.
1:17.42
Not so bad....
A four second improvement over the last time I swam the IM in Feb, and I got 13th place! That's 4 whole points!

After the IM I gave that great suit to Alina, and put on my super shiny blue suit. Would I suck now that I didn't have on that magic suit?
Apparently not!
I'm sick of writing, so let me just say I did it in 33.9. Not so bad! A 2.5 second improvement over last month. Wahoo! I was 10th in the race, so I earned 7 points!
FYI, Alina swam this too and won it in 27.8. Oh yeah.

Maine Masters won the whole meet. I think they had like 4000 points. But hey, 11 of those babies came from me.

It was a great time.