After Sectionals

So that was interesting... I really have no idea what happened the last five days except that I swam and slept for all of it. (not to mention eating) The first day I had the 1000 free, It wasn't great but not bad. The second day was the best though, I had the 200 back where I made it into finals and finished 24th with a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds. I also made my first SCS cut which I talked about in a few posts ago. The third day was ok, I just had the 200 free, not my best event but I did get a best time. The fourth day was a little better, I had the 100 back and the 500 free (the exact order of events I swam at high school state) and I did pretty well. The very last day, today, I swam the mile. The longest even there is and definitely the hardest. The mile is not something to be taken lightly, if someone wants you to swim it protest harshly.

My team mates also did awesome too. One of my team mates, Katie Hale also made it back in one of her events, the 100 back. She was only at the meet for three days though because those were the days her events were on. My other team mate, Alandra McDowell did amazing as well. She unfortunately did not make it back but I believe that both of these girls could have really won it all.

Photo courtesy of 7hillscanvass.com

But thats not all... theres more do do in Texas than just swim. You can eat some darn good cow too. I really have never seen so many steakhouses on one street before in my entire life. There are some local restaurants that are awesome. They sell all kinds of stuff. This one place we went to (it was definitely just a one time thing) sold steaks practically floating in pounds of butter. It was pretty gross afterward but it was an experience that we all got to share. My coach the other families and some other people from Utah. All of us except for our coach agreed we would never go back there.

Like I have said before, if you want to see exactly how I did you can look it up on Meet Mobile and search my name with park city swimming with will also lead you to the ladies that went with me.

First day of sectionals

The first day of sectional was completely awesome. I woke up am got on a plane by the time normally I would be getting ready for school. (This was much better than that) That two hour plane ride really took a tole on me though. I was energetic when I got on so sitting there for two hours was impossible. Everything started to hurt cause it was cramping up and the only thing I could do was change how I was sitting. I was pretty glad though the guy next to me was asleep most of the time though. He didn't have to witness me massaging my body cause those seats are so small. I mean, I am a big person. I am not wide or anything just the amount of mass compared to the amount of body there is ridiculous. Personally I am way to big for those seats but that is besides the point. After we got off the plane we went strait to the hotel and I fell asleep.This day was just a warmup day though so I didn't actually have to race but it feels like your going to with all the anticipation.

Photo courtesy of kevindoak.com

There is no other way to say this but the pool is awesome. It was a 50 meter pool divided in half to make two 25 yard pools on either side with starting blocks and finishing walls of their own. The pool was lowered about a foot so getting out put me on quite the struggle bus. The entire pool bottom was lined with really bright lights so there was never going to be a dark spot in the pool. The pool also have a divided lane marker on the bottom of the pool at the 15 meter mark so that you knew when to come up off of each wall and not get disqualified. The divided of the pool was a bulk head that only went down part way so that you could swim under it and so that water can be equal on both sides. There was another pool to the side with a dive tank that was used for warm up and cool down after races. But the stands were the biggest thing. There were probably close to a thousand seats on the racing side of the pool area raised up about 12 feet to look over the pool.

I don't know how the rest of the meet is going to go but I plan to find out. If you want to see how I am doing you can get the app I recommended earlier called Meet Mobile.

Preparing for even Bigger Meets

After high school state and regular state you would think the season would be done and there is nothing left to do. I have qualified to go to a sectional meet in austin in a few weeks that will be the biggest meet I have ever been to. There are different "stages" in swimming that kind of compare you to other swimmers and see what you go for next. State is actually one of the lower ones on this list though.

-It starts with a qualifying meet which is really just swimming a event for the first time.
-Then there is the Beehive meet which is for the people who don't go to state.
- Of course state is after that.
-The first big meet is Far westerns, hundreds of people from western states attend.
-Zones is the next one, this is like far westerns but more selective.
-Senior Zones are a little harder. (I never went just cause.)
-Sectionals is the first meet where olympians might attend. (This is the one I qualified for)
-SCS is the next.
-Both junior and regular nationals.
-And last (of the normal meets) olympic trials.

Sectionals will really be interesting because I have no idea what to expect. In the past I knew who or what teams what teams would be there but this time teams from anywhere can buy their way into a different regions meet. I do not think it will really change how I swim except for the for the new stress. I really have no idea what to expect, there could be any kind of weather of water conditions. Even though the pool in indoors it really puts a downer on your day if its raining. What I am most scared to see are the walls. I do not know it where is a ledge or it it just going up and the ends of the pools. Or if the backstroke bars are higher or lower of if the touch pad is big or small. I have spent quite some time looking online but they only have details about the other sectional pool in Seattle. I would guess it looks quite like if though so the meet is going to be interesting!

Photo courtesy of Swim Center