First team warmup and meeting lots of people!

It feels great to finally be here.  After a great night of rest at the hotel, I woke up and had breakfast with the team.  The hotel offered a great variety of fruit, scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy.  We received meal vouchers so besides a tip, it was all included in the room rate.  We all piled into the vans and headed over to the pool.  Each van let out their swimmers and we all walked in as a group.  After training and competing alone for so many years, I really enjoy being part of a team.  I snapped a few pictures on my way in the facility.  There is plenty of security at the event.  The National Guard is monitoring each area and checking credentials, I've thanked a few for their service.

Once we had our bags and credentials checked we were in.  We all headed over to the "Athlete Lounge" first.  It's a large private area with big screen TV's and comfy couches to relax on.  There are free fruit smoohies, fruit and Cliff bars... all you can eat!  We all found a spot to stretch in the large team area on the far side of the warmup pool.  We were there pretty early so it wasn't busy yet.  Some swimmers got in the pool to loosen up before stretching.  Others just relaxed for a few minutes.  I did some mild stretching.  Soon after the whole team started the group stretch.  Each exercise is called out by one of the captains, it's a good system.  After stretching Coach Mike Bottom reminded us that we have an Athletic Trainer and Massage Therapist at our disposal.  I may get a massage today.

I was ready to swim after stretching.  I got in and did a 700m warmup and a few short bursts of swimming.  I had the coach watch a backstroke race start and I did a short cool down and got out.  I hit the hot tub and met some nice swimmers.  I introduced myself and had a few good conversations.  Later Matt Grievers got in and I introduced myself, I swam against him in college when EMU swam Northwestern.  Amanda Beard got in a few minutes later, that was the first time I had met her.  I was surprised to hear they both had roommates at trials.  I would think that if you're a former Olympian, that might earn you a room to yourself!  Apparently not.

The next hour of my life was filled with meeting people and collecting swim caps!  I didn't realize how many new contacts I would make by offering this unique service.  To bring ya up to speed, I drove a van out here with all the equipment to remove the logos from the front of caps (The USOC ruled them illegal to wear with a logo on the front).  To my knowledge, nobody else has figured out how to do it yet.  Speedo made a short custom run of caps for their elite athletes but the vast majority have their favorite caps with no solution on the logos.  I've met a lot of nice coaches!  I've done 48 caps so far!

I met up with my team again after the swim and we all went out to lunch and then back to the hotel.  This has been a great experience so far!