Lifetime best in the 100 LCM Free!

After a sub par swim in my 100m backstroke on Tuesday at the 2012 Olympic Trials, I was eager to redeem myself and my swimming career. Since I have a few days between my official swims I wanted to fill my time with some additional races to keep me sharp.  I'm so glad I made that decision.  I signed up for a 100m Freestyle time trial Tuesday morning. I was aiming for my lifetime best of 53.23.

The time trial situation is far less structured than the official events.  There is no "marshalling" per say.  You just have to be at the blocks at the right time.  This means you have to monitor which event and heat is swimming and be ready at the right time.  Since it's not a normal event schedule, there is just mass confusion.  Luckily there are plenty of time trial heat sheets available.  I sat in the stands until a few heats before my race.  With a shave and taper, I was very confident I could get a lifetime best time in the event.  I chose to wear my new Arena R-EVO+ jammer suit.  I'm not sure if I would get a "28" again. I swear, no matter what size you are, if you ever want to feel fat, just try on a properly sized race suit.  As I took this suit out of the box and held it up, my fingers at the edges were no more than 12" apart.  I looked to my teammate and said "I just think it's amazing that I might have a decent shot of getting my body to fit in this thing".  We both laughed and I headed into the locker room to begin the 10 minute process of feeling fat putting my suit on.  After I was finished putting on my leg corset I headed over to the competition pool to begin the guessing game of when I was going to swim.  The uncertainty of the time trials makes me appreciate the laser accuracy of the official events when I know I'll swim at "10:34am".  In the minutes that preceeded my race, my teammate realized he had forgotten his cap. He was in the heat after me.  We breifly considered the possiblity of me touching the wall, ripping off my cap and then tossing it to him to wear in his race seconds later.  The theory seemed solid till we realized I was in lane 7 and he was in lane 0 (they are building ten lane pools with lanes 0-9 instead of 1-10 so in finals they can use the 8 middle lanes for finals and they will read "1-8"). Therefore I would have to toss the cap 7 lanes over and hope he caught it.  it was further complicated by the fact that they were doing "flyover" starts meaning heat one stays in the water as heat two starts, then heat one gets out. There just wasn't enough time to share a cap.  He got one from another teammate at the last second.

As we were called up to the blocks, I felt good. I knew I would have a great race.  It was time to redeem myself.  I was ready.

The gun went off and I had a great start.  I kicked a few dolphins I dolphin kicked a few times and surfaced with a great breakout.  I attacked that first 50 but was relaxed enough to bring it home well.  I flipped at 24.8, even faster than Texas.  I had a few dolphin kicks underwater but breathed on my first breakout stroke, a big no-no.  I seemed to keep it together a bit more than ususal.  I know I slowed down a bit the last 8 meters but I felt strong almost the entire race. In hindsight I might have taken it out a little harder!  I touched and saw 52.04.  I had just DEMOLISHED my lifetime best time by 1.19 seconds!  I finally got to smile in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trial pool.  I couldn't seem to hold back a little fist pump (it was dinky, don't worry... I'm talkin barely over water level).  I was very proud.  I came to Omaha to swim a lifetime best time, and I did it.  I feel great.  My time of 52.0 is just a half second from the 100 Free olympic trial cut.  In the hour that followed my race, I was asked by a few people how I did.  I was proud to tell others that I just dropped over a second in the 100 free.  I got looks of amazement.  I found myself following that comment with "just like a 9 year old" to which I got a few smiles.  At this far into my swimming career it is very odd for somebody to have time drops, let alone time drops of over a second.  I'm having fun with it.

My experience at this meet has been nothing but great experiences.  I meet 20 new people a day.  I find myself feeling confident introducing myself to strangers on the pool deck and asking about their swims.  I've been taking care of our massage and athletic trainers as much as I can.  For some reason they are not allowed in the "coaches hospitality" food area.  Each day I bring them energy bars, bananas and water.  I wish USA swimming would consider their needs as they have with the coaches.  They environment at this meet is so exciting.  I watched finals from the stands last night.  They show they are putting on is amazing.  I'm impressed and concerned that you can FEEL the pyrotechnics on the pool level from the upper deck!  I've taken some great video and pictures which I'll share soon. I've laughed a lot and I've made some new friends along the way.  I'll never forget this experience.  I have the 100m Fly on Saturday but I may time trial something before then.