2012 NWA Masters Long Course Swim Meet

Earlier in June was the Northwest Arkansas Masters Long Course Swim Meet at Memorial Park pool in Bentonville.  This was my second time to do a long course swim meet and it was a great weekend for it.  This year the meet organizers decided to do a two day meet format with the long events on Friday night and the sprints/mid-distance events on Saturday morning. 

The normal meet format for Masters is that you can select five events to participate in but they allowed participants to do one event on Friday and up to five on Saturday.  Bonus!

Some helpful tips if you are new to swim meets like me:
1) Read the meet registration form and look for important details like warmup and seeding information. 
2) If you are unsure of a seed time, speak with the meet director and they will help you get in the right heat. 
3) Take advantage of warmup and cooldown lanes.  Usually 2 lanes will be provided for all the swimmers to use for warmup and cooldown during the meet.  Prior to the start it is generally okay to utilize all lanes for warmup.  Make sure you circle swim since this is the accepted practice with swimmers. 
4) When you get to the meet, locate the heat sheets.  Make note of your events and what heat and lane assignment you have been given.  I usually bring a second registration form to keep track of this.  I also will write down how many heats each event has as well as if any events are scratched. 
5) You are responsible to be at the starting block on time for your events so you have to pay attention! Sometimes there aren't any entrants in an event and it will be skipped.  The heat sheets will help you stay on top of that. 
6) Most meets will post state and citizen records somewhere at the meet.  If you think you could break a record for your age group and event, notify the starter and head timers.  Record attempts require 3 timers to be official and it is your responsibility to tell the officials that you are going for a record. 
7) If you are unsure of starting off the blocks or even diving from the edge, go ahead and do an in-pool start.  There will be swimmers of all ages and abilities at a Masters meet so you have nothing to fear, all types of starts will be used!
8) Have fun and Swim Hard!!!

Back to the meet...this year I elected to do the 1500 Free for my Friday evening event.  There was just one heat with about 5 of us entered.  I put down 32 minutes as my seed time.  This is a mental event more than a physical event for me.  It's a tough distance to stay engaged and focused and keep a consistent pace.  My previous time from this meet in 2010 was 32:35 so I was pretty happy when the timer told me I was under 29 min.  I'm still waiting for the official results to be released but I pretty happy with a 3:30 minute improvement!

I'm in green on the left side just before our 1500 start.

After the events on Friday, I headed to the club's board meeting.  I had reached out to the president about getting more involved and it was fun to attend the meeting.  I especially enjoyed the motion to elect me as Social Media coordinator!!! I'll be taking over the Facebook, Twitter, and Blog feed for the Arkansas Masters!

Saturday morning I got to the pool around 8:30 for the meet start at 9:00.  I was super nervous since I was trying out a new event...50 m Breast stroke.  I decided on 4 events for Saturday which were 50 Breast, 100 Free, 50 Back, and 200 Free. 

First up for me was the 50 breast and I was in the 2nd heat.  After the first heat, the official had a conversation with a participant about her stroke form and it appeared she was being DQ'd.  That increased my nervousness even more.  Turns out she was pulling below the waist which isn't allowed in breast stroke.  My start was a little iffy since I initially forgot to kick properly and caught myself starting to flutter.  Kick fix and I was on my way doing the breast stroke! About half way down the pool I realized that it's a long way, 3/4 of the way down I wanted to be done! My time was just under 1 minute...barely. 

Whoops, bad form with a way too wide kick!

Up next after a quick rest was the 100 free.  I swam in the 2nd heat and managed just over 1:30 for the distance which was a few seconds improvement over my time in 2010. 

The 50 back was stressful since I was assigned lane 1 next to the wall and the official.  In outdoor pools I struggle to stay in a straight line for back stroke.  So I was worried about running into the wall and I was worried that somehow I would make a form mistake with the official watching.  With those two things making me nervous I got started okay.  For the first 15m or so I stayed straight and then I slowly moved to the lane divider on my left and promptly ran into it.  That startled me and I tried to get back on course.  I ran into the divider a couple more times but soon enough I spotted the flags and new I was just a few strokes from finishing! My time was just under 53 seconds which was in line with my previous time. 

My last event was the 200 free.  My finish time was around 3:18 which I was happy with since I stayed pretty close to the other competitor in my heat for most of the race.  Overall, it was a good meet for me and I had a good time swimming the events and chatting with the other swimmers. 

After the meet was over, we headed over to Greg's house for the meet social.  Greg and his wife Kim had a great pasta lunch spread and a beautiful shaded deck where we enjoyed the meal.  It was a perfect finish to the meet since I was starving given my nerves kept me from eating much before the meet!

2012 One Hour Postal Swim Meet

Every year in January, US Masters Swimming hosts a One Hour Postal Swim Meet.  The objective of the meet is to swim as far as you can in one hour.  It is a national event in that anyone can compete from wherever they want.  You have the entire month of January to swim and submit your results. 

I'm really lucky that our Masters club get together to swim the One Hour swim together.  This year the meet was on Saturday and it kicked off bright and early at 5:30 AM with registration.  I'm not a morning person so this is always one of the most challenging aspects of the meet.  We hold two heats and most people swim a heat and count a heat.  Each swimmer should have a counter and that person is responsible for keeping track of the swimmer's lap splits and distance. 

3rd from the left and I'm getting some last minute coaching from Carie.

My friend Carie offered to count for me again this year.  She is a great friend and she always coaches our Sunday Funday workouts.  My friend Lori and I shared a lane and lined up in the lane next to our friend Brent.  This year was the first time that we filled the pool and had to send people to the 2nd pool.  Pretty impressive turnout with 50 swimmers!!!

Our awesome club President Jeff Spencer kicking off the meet

The first heat of swimmers got started at 6 AM.  Carie and I had agreed that she would tell me when I hit the half way point and also when I had 10 minutes remaining.  My goal this year was to hit the 2 mile mark.  As we got the one minute warming for the start time I slowly lowered myself into the water...it was soooo cold. 

Ready, Set, Go!

As we got started it took me a few laps to feel like I was settled into a pace.  I decided to count laps by counting up to 10 (500yds) and then starting over.  I thought this would help me stay focused and see if I was on pace at the halfway point.  It also helped me to keep track of just how much time I had left after passing the halfway point.  Swimming for an hour non-stop can get a little boring so anything to keep your mind off of it is great. 

At the 30 minute mark I had already made it past the one mile mark and figured I had a cushion of about 50-100 yds.  I couldn't give up my focus or pace.  At the 10 minute warning, I knew that I could easily swim 500yds in the time remaining and that I was going to make my goal.  In the midst of this time, I came upon Lori stopped in our lane.  Right as I passed it she started swimming again.  Turns out someone decided to blow a 5 minute warning whistle and she thought it meant our hour was up.  She wasn't happy about it because it cost her 10-15 yds while she tried to figure out if it was over or not. 

Lori and I after we finished. 

The final minute went by quickly and when the whistle went off I was in the middle of the pool.  My official distance was 3440 yds.  The first thing I did when we were finished was swim down to the bottom of the pool and retrieve a dive toy that had been resting on our lane line the entire swim.  Then I confirmed with Carie that I hit my goal and had a celebratory cooldown.  It was so awesome to do some back and breast stroke since all I swam for the hour was freestyle.  My muscles were ready for something different. 

Arkansas Masters 2012 One Hour Swim

After the cooldown, all the participants gathered together for a group picture and then it was time for the 2nd heat to get started.  Carie had a friend counting for her that is just getting into swimming.  She was curious about the meet but a little scared so counting was a good introduction into what the meet is all about.  Brent, Lori, and I took over the hot tub and enjoyed a nice soak before cheering on our friends during their heat. 

I think the top distance swam was 4800 yds and there were quite a few in the 4000+ range including Lori and Brent.  This was my third year to do the one hour swim and in that time I have added 500 yds to my hour distance.  As one friend said, I can now report that I swim at 2 mph!

Photos taken by Daniel McGurk.

Arkansas Masters Indoor Swim Meet

Today the Arkansas Masters Swim Club hosted an indoor meet at the Walton Life Fitness Center.  This is a corporate fitness center and we were very lucky that the organizers were able to secure the facility for the meet.  It is a great pool and we had a great turnout of around 27 people for the meet. 

My good friends Kyla, Carie, Brent, and Lori were also competing.  Brent and Lori were also part of the organizing committee for the meet so they were also working as starters and officials.  There were some other friends at the meet but also some people that travelled from Oklahoma City and Tulsa to compete. 

If you are familiar with Masters then you know that you can sign up for just 5 individual events in a meet.  There were 17 different events in the meet today and I selected four to compete in.  I had decided early on to compete in the 100 and 500 yd free events.  I was never a swim team member and this is only my second swim meet as an adult.  I branched out and decided to add on the 50 back which unfortunately was immediately after the 100 free.  I also polled my friends and decided to enter the 100 IM event.

We started off the meet with easy warm-up.  I practiced my flip turns even doing several backstroke turns to just make sure I could handle it for the 50 yd back! At the end of the warm-up time, Carie and Kyla talked me through how to do a backstroke start.  I tried it a couple times using the starting block but my start just looked like a back belly flop.  I tried it by holding on to the edge of the pool and that worked a little better and I was able to get an arch in my back for the start.  I did one dive start from the edge and did a very easy 25 fly to practice for the IM.  The starting blocks at the Fitness Center are really tall and I'm very nervous about using them so I planned to do my dive starts from the edge of the pool instead. 

First up for me was the 100yd free.  I was in Heat 1 with Carie next to me.  It was great to have a friend and training partner next to me to calm my nerves.  Kyla captured this video of me doing the 100 free!  I submitted an entry time of 1:41 and was shocked to swim a 1:22:04. 

My second event was the 50yd backstroke.  I didn't get a huge rest between the two events and it was tough.  I swam an easy 50 between the two to try to keep my legs warm but it was tough to have such a short break between events even though I was in the 2nd heat.  I submitted a time of 50 or 55 sec for this one and managed to swim 43.68 seconds.  I did okay on my flip turn but felt like I was swallowing a ton of water and drowning on the 2nd half of the 50:(

My third event was the 500yd freestyle.  I was in the first heat for this event and thought I would be swimming next to Kyla.  But when we were on deck we realized that they had changed the heat assignments and Kyla was moved into the 2nd heat.  The challenge for this event was keeping track of the number of laps.  They forgot to have volunteers do the lap counters for the first heat so we were on our own.  I submitted a 9:00 time on my registration and again beat my expectation with a time of 8:09:89!!! I was really proud of my time for this event and know that I worked hard for it. 

My final event was the 100 yd IM and I was in heat 2.  I don't do a ton of stroke work so this distance appealed to me because it was just 25 yd of each stroke.  That is the perfect distance for my butterfly skill level!

I did my dive start from the edge and then started on the fly.  Just last week Carie showed me what she calls the survival fly which has a long recovery on the front of the stroke.  I have rhythm challenges with my dolphin kick so I tried to use this to slow down and cover the distance. 

If you open the pic bigger, you can see me doing fly!

Next up was the back stroke which went a lot better than the 50 where I felt like I was drowning. 

At the end of the backstroke, I counted strokes from the flags and then flipped to my stomach to hit the wall and turn into the breast stoke. 

My breast stroke went well and before I knew I was sprinting in the final 25 yds of freestyle. 

My predicted time was 2:00 and I finished in 1:35:31.  There was just one little problem...Carie was watching my heat and she noticed that I did something illegal during my turn between backstroke and breast stroke.  Apparently, you are not allowed to fully turn onto your stomach.  So I should have been DQ'd for the 100 IM but since there weren't any starts/turns officials today I didn't get DQ'd.  The only problem is that I know I messed up so I'm pretty bummed about it.  Kyla and Carie tried to explain what I did wrong to me but I still don't know how exactly I messed up.  Needless to say...we'll be practicing IM turns for sure. 

Overall, the swim meet was a great event and I had a good time participating.  The meet souvenir was a super soft cotton long sleeve shirt with the Arkansas Masters club logo on the front of it.  The club also hosted a social after the meet with yummy lasagna and salad.  I was bummed about my 100 IM issue but even with that little hiccup I was super proud of all my times in the events.   Doing this swim meet was outside my comfort zone but having so many great friends also swimming made it a great time.