Of Swimming Bondage

After 5 days a row in the water, I'm taking a day to stay dry, but, of course, my mind is still on swimming. I've cobbled together a bit of a race plan for the summer thus far ...

June 7th & 8th - Southwest Classic in Tucson - confirmed
As my oldest daughter is swimming the Southwest Classic at the U of A (https://www.teamunify.com/SubTabGene..._stabid_=77317), it's cross-sanctioned with USMS and I'm dropping #3 daughter and her friend off at the U of A swim camp that Sunday, I've entered a few events:

• Saturday - 50 free and 400 IM
• Sunday - 200 IM

June 21st - Fast Times in the Cool Pines in Flagstaff - confirmed
Everyone in the country really should descend upon the glorious mountain town on Flagstaff to have the ultimate swimming test - racing LCM at 7,000 feet. The entry form is up here -- https://www.clubassistant.com/club/m...2218&smid=5745 -- and I've entered the following eclectic mix of events:

• 400 free
• 50 fly
• 100 breast
• 50 back
• 100 free

June 27th - Pacific Masters LCM Champs - possible (but not likely)
If my business travel aligns in time to enter this meet (http://www.pacificmasters.org/comp/p.../14pacmlcm.pdf), I'll drop in to swim the 1,500 that Friday morning.

July 3rd - Arizona State Senior Champs - USAS - possible (but not likely)
The meet flyer's not up for this, but I'll see what event they are having on July 3rd and how it fits with my work and life. I had to register for USAS this year to swim the Southwest Classic, so I may as well go swim something. I'm hoping they have the 800 free on the 3rd as that would be fun to do. The meet's at ASU, which has excellent chillers for summer racing.

July 12th-13th - Swim Devil Heatstroker - highly unlikely
I am really bummed about this. For the first time in my 17 years of living in Arizona, there is a Masters meet being hosted (by Swim Devil Masters) at Cactus Pool, the wonderful LCM pool less than a mile from my house - http://azlmsc.org/wp-content/uploads...tstrokeLCM.pdf. Unfortunately, I am heading to India for work on July 4th and will get back home the evening of July 12th. In addition, #3 daughter will have her big meet of the summer that same weekend, so I'm 99% sure I will not be able to race here.

July 26th or 27th - AZ State Meet in Tucson - fairly likely
I should be around Arizona this weekend, don't appear to have any kid meet or vacation conflicts and should be able to head down to Tucson for at least one day of our State Championships meet -- http://azlmsc.org/wp-content/uploads...tate-flyer.pdf. I don't think I want to go down for both days, so will probably just pick whichever day imposes less 'hardship' on the household and then choose 4 events that look fun.

This weekend's fun race watching
I've got the joy of announcing the finals for this weekend's Cactus Classic meet at Cactus Pool - http://www.scottsdaleswim.com/TabGen...839&team=assac. This will be much more awesome than recent years as the Ford team is coming up (e.g., with Grevers, Cordes, Steele, Geer, etc. entered), as well as some of the swimmers from ASU along with studs from Phoenix Swim Club like Roland Schoeman. It's certainly raised the bar for the club team swimmers to make the 'A' finals, but that's an awesome thing.

Tonight's reminder I'm getting old
#1 daughter has her high school graduation tonight. If that's not a nudge that I'm getting older, I don't know what else is. She is so stoked, though, to have this phase of life behind her and very much looking forward to starting at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver this fall. She'll swim there, of course, and I think it's going to be an awesome fit for her. So papa-proud of her!