50 Free Time Trial Results

After quite a long morning of waiting around, I finally swam an hour after time trials started.  There was a bit of drama sorting out an error regarding which day I wanted to time trial.  After talking to 15 meet staff and officals, I was properly entered into the 50 free.  Since the 50 free starts at the opposite end of the pool, they needed to test the timing equipment at that end.  Add another 10 minutes of them blowing the whistle, me stepping up, them noticing an error, me stepping down... over and over again.  They finally gave up and gave me a verbal "step up" and just pressed the button.  I'd like to say I wasn't thrown off by it all, but I'm willing to bet it all contributed to sub par performance.

As I dove in, my hands didn't lock together in mid air, I hit the water and my arms crossed... a very bad beginning to a short race where every detail matters.  I tried to correct it and just surfaced to start swimming.  I felt like my stroke and tempo were pretty good overall.  I did drift toward the right of the lane at the end but I doubt that affected much.  I touched in a 24.00, slightly slower than my "I want to be faster than a 24.0" goal.  I had really hoped to be faster than my 2009 performance of 23.96 but I was right there considering the pre-race drama and horrible start.

I can't beat myself up too much, it was still among my fastest times and considering my start error, it was faster swimming than the clock represents.

Tomorrow (today) I have my one official event, the 100 meter backstroke.  I'm happy to report my heavily tinted goggles are performing just fine.  The overcast morning, combined with a mirrored goggle finish looks promising to help me deal with the bright California sun while swimming backstroke.  I know I will struggle with swimming straight without a ceiling to look at but I'll do my best.