Arthur Inglis Invitational Swim Meet

For those of you who know me well, this may come as a complete surprise. Today I listened to my body. When it hurt, I stopped. And I actually feel pretty good about stopping (also a complete surprise). Because I made a conscious decision to DQ in the last 25 of 100 fly this morning and switched to freestyle, rather than get myself into serious trouble. That’s not to say I’m happy with the result – because I’m not. But I’m not worried either. I talked to the coach afterwards, and we’re both going to put some thought into how to manage butterfly turns. And that’s a good thing. (Because we all know I won’t be satisfied with the “I can only do a 50 fly” answer.)

I will never not swim injured. So a big part of the game for me is not exacerbating the injuries I live with. What I learned today:

• the blocks at Ottawa U are harder for me to manage than the blocks at the Sportsplex or Plante (and if the starter tells you to stand down, and you tell him you can’t he won’t make you – saying no, even nicely, to an official isn’t something I’ve actually done before)
• it’s a triumph for me to do a block start, so the fact that I’m a metre behind on the start is really a bonus, because I’d be more than a metre behind if I dove from the side or did a push start
• it’s not the fly that’s the problem – Coach Duane says it’s the twisting on the turns that’s the issue for me (I guess we’ll see what Dr. Don has to say on the 4th)
• if I’m not careful I could turn into a freestyler! ;-)

At today’s meet in this order, I swam a :40.low 50 fly (turns suck – I swam :39.8 long course 3 weeks ago), a 50 free I was really happy with at :36.8 (2006 Worlds qualifying time was :39.5 long course), and DQ’d the 100 fly. I now have a hamstring that is too tight and a rock instead of a left groin. But I could get out of the pool and walk, stand in the shower, and take the bus home. So overall I’m feelin’ pretty good about today.

And on extraordinarily happy note, I ran into another old friend this morning! The regular locker room entrance wasn't open bright and early, so we enter through a side gallery, take off our boots, go downstairs, and traipse along the deck carrying boots and gear to enter the locker rooms from the pool. So I was sitting taking off my still somewhat snowy boots (it started snowing last night and is still going) and there, right in front of me was Leslie C from the old days at the Y! She had a friend swimming! So the competition began with a wonderful hug!

After the meet in the lobby, I joined Leslie and Duane for a reminiscing session. Duane and Leslie go back 41 years they figure ... I've only known them 37 going on 38! What an absolute treat that was!