Mandeville, Louisiana
Mandeville is located about 100 miles southwest of Hattiesburg. There were a few people from our Monday/Wednesday/Friday masters group heading down, so I was able to catch a ride with one of the couples, Elizabeth & Joseph Tullos. Kyle's mom surprised me with a delicious peanut butter flake snack that is apparently a swim meet staple. DELICIOUS!
I was feeling a little anxious, since my only experience with swim meets were with Kyle's club meets in Virginia with HUNDREDS of kids crammed onto a pool deck and mass chaos. Other anxiety factors included the starts (I kept seeing stars during practice) and those DANG FLIP TURNS (I had been forcing myself to do them over the past week and a half in preparation for the meet, but each pool length still felt like preparation for the next flip turn and hoping not to get a nose full of water). FORTUNATELY, the meet would be outside, so at least it would be a cheery atmosphere...
Not long after we hit the road, it started POURING. Apparently Mandeville is really close to Abita, a brewery that I have become increasingly fond of. We decided that if the swim meet was canceled, we would just tour the brewery and do a few tastings... My idea of a few tastings is to enjoy a taste of EVERYTHING, then do it a few more times. I think we were all on the same page. During the ride I pretty much convinced myself that the meet was going to be a bust and that I would be spending my morning drinking. I got my hopes up.
We got to the athletic club and were told the meet would go on as planned. It wasn't storming- just on and off downpour and they had a few canopy tents set up for coverage. After warm-ups, I got ready for my first event- the 50 Free. I was pretty nervous for the first race... wobbly legs and everything... But the buzzard blew and it was over before I realized it had started. The meet was extremely laid back, and all the events I raced in went by pretty quick-even the 50 breast where I choked on water...
EXCEPT THE 1000 FREE. I was doing this one so that I would have an updated time for that distance so I could get some idea of where my swimming stands. I was dreading this one because I knew it was going to be 15-ish minutes of pain. And it was. My breathing felt labored in the first 100, and it stayed there, and I got lapped by the women on either side of me.... BUT I finished 20 seconds faster than my predicted time, and I hit ALL my flip turns :) Success.
Here are my times.
50 FREE- 30.49
200 FREE- 2:32.08
50 BREAST- 45.29
100 FREE- 1:08.72
1000FREE- 14:19.74
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