Travel Swim Meets

The first things that come to mind when thinking of a basic description of a travel swim meet is literally eat,sleep,swim. Yet, the only thing anyone really gets enough of is the swimming. A day at a travel meet normally consists of:

 1. Breakfast
         Most usually provided by whichever hotel we are staying at. Mostly consisting of juice, cereal, breakfast meat, with a side of a bad attempt of recreating scrambled eggs without actually cooking them.
2. Getting to the pool
         A tired progression of swimmers, all of whom are just beginning to realize they are about to jump into a pool with another 100+ swimmers for warm-up. 
3. Warm-up
        With a little pushing and shoving, the coaches manage to get all the swimmers to put together a scene that looks like the penguins jumping off the iceberg.

4. Changing from a practice suit to your championship suit
           Every swimmer wants to be their best at their travel meet so part of the routine to get ready normally includes a 2 sizes too small suit. There are many different brands and each swimmer has their preference to which one will make them swim faster. But the one constant is that it takes a good 5-20 minutes to squeeze it onto your body. The worst nightmare for a swimmer is the ripped swimsuit. If you tug a little too hard on a weak seam you can end up with a hole, big or small on your hip, your butt, or leg which makes for an overflow of skin. It even happens to the best of them.

Nathan Adrian split his suit before racing Michael Phelps.

 5. The Race
          Probably the most important part of the meet, you may have to wait hours on the bleachers waiting for your event or you may be the first heat of the first event, whichever is the case there is pressure. It is the reason you are there in the first place, you want to swim well because otherwise it feels like you have wasted time, energy, and money just to come and swim badly. Especially when you have to report it to your parents and coaches back home.
6. Lunch
         Whether you eat with the team at the hotel or are allowed to go out with friends, you want to eat to ensure that your next performance, be it the next day or at finals, will be optimized. Its especially tempting to eat down the free desserts from the hotel or order those french fries, but its best to remember you are trying to keep your body well-fueled.
7.Finals
         The first rule of travel meets is that the older kids almost ALWAYS go to finals. Whether you are there to swim or cheer on your teammates make sure you wear team gear and get excited. Finals is one of the most exciting parts of a travel meets, everyone has fun cheering on their teammates and watching the best swim it out for first place.
8. Dinner
        Finals goes very late and by the time dinner happens you are starving. Waiting seems impossible so getting in line behind a bunch of other hungry swimmers is one of the most frustrating parts about dinner. Its surprising that there aren't fistfights over who gets food first. Yet, when the food comes out it goes down faster than you'd think it possible, all talking ceases and all to be heard is utensils to plates.
9. Bedtime
        Finally back to the hotel room and everyone is rea.......

A Taste of Gold

Au, gold, an element that sparkles in the light, in some cultures it is even eaten on chocolate. What I mostly associate it with is the ultimate show of how you are better than anyone in the world at your sport. Anyone who has accomplished anything in sports has a gold medal around their necks and the taste of victory on their lips. Memories of the moment their national anthem played and when they were bestowed with a reward for their struggles.

 It takes 4 years of hard training to get to where you can get in your arena and perform to the audience to prove that you are better than anyone on the entire earth at what you do. For me it is swimming that I am working to achieve this aspirational goal in, and every practice i hit the pool with times, goals, and images of all the people i need to work to beat in the front of my head pushing me to do my best no matter how i feel. I guess what I really want to achieve is to push my body to the extent of what it can be and know i don't have anything left and i haven't anything to spare. I don't want to waste an ounce of my talent. I want to be all that i can be. I just hope all that i can be is better than all everyone else can be when it comes down to the ultimate race. The Olympics. If I can get there.