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Monumental Masters Mini Meet

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USMS Memberrxleakem
, April 28th, 2012 at 11:34 PM (1557 Views)
So today we had our first ever mini meet in my my home pool. It served as a fundraiser for the local age group team, and essentially I just leaned on them for running the meet. We had to wait about 15 minutes to get into the building (they normally open at 9am, and you know how it goes when you ask someone to change their routine ...), but I had already put the lane lines in last night with my son so just some minor tasks to get the show moving.

We ended up with 23 swimmers, so I was really excited about that. At least half came from out of town, many first timers, and despite the warm pool (83) everyone seemed to have a good time. I made the opening announcements and took over the mic a few times to help slow the meet down, and we ended up finishing up in about 1.5 hours. Dedicated the meet to my mom, who passed away in 1995 but was so important in not only helping to get all of us kids to swim competetivly, but also to promote the sport throughtout Vermont.

I ended up swimming a little more than I wanted to, but I did not want anyone to swim alone. It's all good with:

200 Medley Relay*: Fly
100 Fly: 59.23
100 Back: 1:06.xx
400 IM: 5:04.xx + 100 swim = 500
25 Monument Kick Sprint: dfl (by choice)
200 Free Relay*: Swam 1st and 4th leg

* Swam these with my brother Jeff, who has not been in the water in over 10 years but came to swim. He looked like he never took a break from swimming (he is a biker: cyclocross, so I have to do a race with him this fall ).

My goals were to swim the 100 Fly and 400 IM to complete the checkoff challange (save the super-long distances). I was a little tired from the relay, but happy to go under 1:00 in the 100 fly. The last 25 hurt pretty bad. I just cruised the backstroke, working on underwaters (skd'd 10/10/6/5) as a loosen before the next event.

I was really happy with the 400 IM, my first ever time racing this event , and I did not leave a whole left in the tank at the end. Thinking about my practice swims, it was really close to the add-up from one of PWB's sets in February, and my splits were:
29.46, 37.57 (1:07.03)
38.22, 38.47 (1:16.69)
46.86, 48.14 (1:35.00)
31.49, 34.08 (1:05.57)
I either took out the first 50 fly too fast (but it felt easy) or loafed the second 50 too much, and was a bit too slow on the backstroke leg. Still need to work on beaststroke, but my calves were really tight so I'll take the time. I hoped to get under 5 minutes, but now I have motivation to swim this event again.

Had a great time getting this meet going, and people in my neck of the woods liked the idea of driving less than 2-3 hours to swim. GregJS had some fast swims (blazed the 100 breast ), and I talked about the upcoming Kingdom 10mile swim with Brent and Bethany, who are also doing it. We had first time swimmers from our Masters club, like Kevin, Rich and Cindy (who did an awesome 50 back), and Robert and Sharon (both swim for fitness, but like my brother were convinced to race due to my pestering).

Thanks to all of you on the intertubes for your support and encouragement as well, especially SwimShark. Total: 1975 yards. Came home and watched Chris and Tom do the 200 back, then Speedo and Jazz + others in the 50 free online before taking a nap.

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Updated May 4th, 2012 at 03:06 PM by rxleakem

Categories
Masters Swim Meets / Events

Comments

  1. pwb's Avatar
    Very cool. 23 swimmers is a very good turnout. We very often have meets in the heart of Arizona, in a metro area of 3M people and we'll get 50 people to show. 23 in your much more sparsely populated neck of the woods is great.

    Nice 400 IM. I'd say you took the fly out too fast on the 1st 50 ... and feel like I can say that because I just did it myself and know how it feels.
  2. jaadams1's Avatar
    Sounds like a good meet. Maybe you can get the word out about making this an annual event too! I'm not sure if holding it earlier in the year might be better or not. But it sounds like you had a good time, and that's what counts.
    Good 400 IM first timer. Now you know what to do the next time.
  3. That Guy's Avatar
    Good swims! Successfully running a Masters meet on the same weekend as Nats is an achievement!
  4. aztimm's Avatar
    Sounds like a great meet!!!!

    And congratulations on all of your swims, especially the 400 IM!!! Heck, just finishing that legally is an accomplishment (one that I'll never do).

    I think there's some benefit to having a meet the same time as nationals, especially from further away where few would travel to it. Heck, some people won't do a national meet at all, but would love to do a small fast meet like this.
  5. GregJS's Avatar
    That was a really fun, well-run little meet and everyone I talked to seemed to really enjoy it. Great job, Mike - and thanks. It's no small thing to make a meet happen, especially for the first time.

    The difference between a good swimmer and...well, let's just say an "aspiring to be good" swimmer (like myself): maybe I looked like I was blazing in the breast - but I wasn't. Meanwhile, you looked like you were loafing in the back - but you weren't. Smooth, smooth, smooth. Same with the 400 IM. You make it look easy!
  6. KEWebb18's Avatar
    Great swims! Congratulations on your meet being enjoyable for those involved!
  7. rxleakem's Avatar
    Thanks guys. I edited the post to thank SwimShark, who was invaluable in sharing her knowledge with me before the meet. I think everyone had a great time, and I have gotten some emails about the ease in getting to the meet and also the opportunity to explore the community afterwards.

    From the standpoint of running the meet, the age group team is done for the year and there is a small lull in the official's datebook, so it worked for getting volunteers (and for the kiddos to be on the other end of the stopwatch). We also have a bike event (Tour of the Dragons) and the Bennington Road race next weekend, and the Shires Marathon in a few weeks, so it meshes well with community athletics already established.

    The biggest advantage for many of the first timers is to experience what I think we all have here: the swimming community is very encouraging and welcoming. Fitness is great, but being able to feel included no matter what an individual's goals are in competition is pretty awesome.

    Oh, and looking at some other times in the database, I agree that I went out too hard in the first 50 of the 400im. Good thing I don't have to do that for another year (or five).