A great first day at the 2011 Eric Namesnik Grand Prix!

I had a great prelims and enjoyed catching up with quite a few old friends and acquaintances.  Although not my pool, I felt sort of at-home at the Canham natatorium today at U of M.  I think it's simply because I've been around the same area for so long.  I know coaches and swimmers seemingly throughout the meet.  Check out this run-on sentence:

I walked in the building and shook hands with CW coach Bailey Weathers, flashed my athlete credentials entered the deck area to see my friend Kara Lynn Joyce, gave her a quick hug, walked a few more steps and exchanged a hello and a "good luck today" with Emily Breneman while she was talking with Michael Phelps.  I said hello to Michael Bottom, head coach of U of M and CW, saw my friend Patrick Saucedo warming up, only to run into Cullen Jones in the locker room and exchanged a quick "hello".  I changed for warmup and jumped in the pool for a brief 10 minute warmup before they closed the pool.  I counted 16 sets of Olympic Ring tatoos while warming up.  When they closed the competition pool I moved into the diving well and finished my warmup.  Afterward I dried off, and hit the spectator area to see more swimmers and coaches.  I shook hands with EMU's Butterflier and backstroker Alan Duski and eventually saw EMU's Sprinter Justin Griggs as well.  Caught up with Akron's assistant coach and met up with a fellow masters swimmer Chuck as well.  Last and certainly not least, I visited my one and only fan for the day :)  I spent a few minutes talking and watching the competition.  I rooted for a few EMU and other random swimmers from CW, NBAC, FLA and CA.  It was exciting to see so many fast swimmers.  I videotaped Patrick and headed down to warmup again.  I dried off and had about 10 minutes to stand around before my 100 Fly.  In the meantime I watched another EMU alumni Dan Kish go a 1:01.xx in his 100 Fly, I think he wanted to be a little faster but this is his first long course meet out of retirement.  I was in the next heat.  I put on my double caps and was ready to swim.  I felt nervous but prepared to race.  I dove in, had a decent underwater kick.  I came up and scooted to the first wall in a 27.03.  I knew I had swam a good pace so far, but as with any 100 meter race, you have to go out hard and HOLD ON.  I tried to do just that.  I felt ok for about 20 meters off the first wall but started to wear down quickly.  Luckily my stroke stayed together mostly and I only really struggled for the last 10 meters.  I took one more stroke than I wanted to but touched in a weekend goal achieving 59,94!  I brought it home in a 32.91... very slow.  I'll be workin on that.  As crazy as it sounds.  I think I can get an Olympic Trial cut in the 100 Fly in 2012.  I'm OVER 4 seconds off (59.94 vs 55.29) but I really feel as though I have the potential to squeak in under the cut.  I finished my race, looked at the clock and smiled.  I was happy with that time!  I stuck around to watch Patrick, Alan, Justin and then exchanged a few words with Cullen Jones regarding masters Nationals and his upcoming 100 Fly race.  I left with a "good luck" and went to warm down.  After a brief warmdown I realized I was with all the other EMU people in the same lane, Coach Linn had stopped by to see them all.  I told him about my time to which he replied "I think I called that one".  As he said that, I remembered he timed my 100 Fly in practice a few days prior with a 1:03.4 and mentioned that I'd be about a 1:00 or under... the guy is good.  Next I hit the hot tub, saw Ceasar Cielo and the rest of the Brazilian team while I passed Davis Tarwater and Phelps again talking to Bob Bowman.  I spotted Kara Lynn Joyce warming down and went to go say hi.  She got out after a minute of talking and we caught up on life and swimming.  We hit the hot tub along with a bunch of other swimmers to finish our conversation about swimming, life, coaches, and other gossip from the Ann Arbor/Ypsi area.  She went to go watch her race and I took off to go get some pizza!

It was a great day!