Three Day Meets aren't any easier now than they were 5 years ago

Or are they? I'd argue they aren't - because while the kids can pretty well get themselves to their races on time, spending 3 days straight (8 hours on each of Saturday and Sunday) out in the elements around a pool never really gets easier. It's a long day for everyone.

But let's not focus on the negative (as I am wont to do). I'm mostly posting this just to keep track of results - a little bookmark in the timeline of swim team history. It gives me a strange satisfaction to look back through the old swim meet posts and be absolutley amazed at how much faster the kids are now.

Friday night was truly special. We waded through the worst of Southern California rush hour to get all the way to Fallbrook by 5pm - for the 45 minutes of warm up - for the race that was to finally be conducted around 7:30 pm - by which time it was about 45 degrees (not kidding). The race? Lucy's first 500 yard freestyle. That kind of distance just ain't right. It especially ain't right when you're swimming it outdoors in the dark when it's 45 degrees. She says her toes were still numb when she finished. This race took her 6:25 - that's six minutes and 25 seconds of pure agony. There's a lot to admire in that Lucy!

The next morning started at 6:00am, when I reluctantly roused myself to prepare for the day. I had the pleasure of attending this meet husbandless. That will not be forgotten.

I'm drifting toward dwelling on the negative again - so let's get to results.

Lucy's results (age 12):

100 IM - 1:14
50 Free - 29s
50 fly - 32s (Junior Olympics qualifying)
100 free - 1:04
100 fly - 1:17

Ethan's results (age 10):
100 IM - 1:17
50 free - 30.5 (3rd place)
100 back - 1:20 (1st place)
50 back - 36.16 (1st place - Far Western qualifying - "Far Western" is the big all-California meet)
100 free - 1:07 (3rd place)
50 breast - 44s

Four years ago I recorded some amazingly different times for the kids at the first meet I put on the blog (Spook Splash - October 2007):
Ethan (at age 6) swimming a 1:07.18 in the 50 freestyle (now he swims the 100 as fast) and Lucy (at age 8) swimming her 100 freestyle in 1:51.

What I was most proud of at this last meet was Ethan's tremendous determination to qualify for Far Westerns in the 50 backstroke. I had never seen that look on his face before - he swam with a passion - those skinny arms and legs with the huge feet moving faster than you might think possible.

They're great kids. It ended up being a lot of fun.