Watching the 1500 Free

I'm watching the 1500 free right now. It was a great final session with some very fast swims.

Some things I noticed about the meet:

• The counting during the distance events are handled by the meet officials/referees. The interesting thing about their methods of counting is that they don't put the numbered boards underwater (where the swimmers can see them). They hold the boards at deck level pointed toward the swimmer... like the swimmer is going to pick his head up and look at them?! This seems very odd.
• There is music playing almost constantly, even during interviews, obviously louder during the walkouts.
• The lines on the wall go all the way down to the bottom, rather than the typical "cross" on the wall. This is helpful when swimming freestyle fast because your head is pointed toward the bottom or slightly forward. This means you can see the wall without looking up and therefore changing your body position.
• During the finals session, they have the camera on the train tracks going along the side of the pool, this is my first meet I've ever seen it done live

I'm gonna try to get in and try some more starts on the Omega pads after all the medley relays.