SWAT, Sarah Kate’s year round swim team, doesn’t participate in a lot of meets. There just aren’t that many teams around to swim against, and there are even fewer that are close enough to us to be worth the trip. As a result, Sarah Kate’s only meet so far was the intrasquad meet last month. The team did have an additional meet since then, but it was at the same time as the Buddy Walk, so she didn’t participate. The second intrasquad meet was scheduled for this weekend, but Mr. Andi was out of town on Saturday, so I had the kids by myself. The temptation to just stay home and watch the Auburn/LSU game was pretty strong, but I packed up the diaper bag, our camp chairs, and some snacks, coached Sarah Kate to get her things together, and we headed out to the meet.
As before, I had signed her up for all four of the 10-and-under events – 25 yards each in butterfly, breast, free, and backstroke – and she was to swim the events in that order. I noticed as soon as I checked the heat sheet that she was swimming in the faster heats (mostly because a lot of the kids didn’t have a seed time yet, although she did have a faster seed time than a few of the kids in breast, free, and back).
Fortunately, this time she didn’t forget her goggles before lining up for any of her heats. I won’t go into a lot of detail on the fly and breast because, frankly, there wasn’t much good to say about either heat other than that she finished (there are no DQs in an intrasquad meet for the novice swimmers). The fly was a little bit slower than last time and the breast was A LOT slower.
Her third event was freestyle. I was not optimistic, based on the prior two events, but she did alright. Her time was two seconds faster than her previous best, but she also left the side of the pool a second or two ahead of the other kids, so I’m going to call it a wash. The really great thing about it was that she was FIRST IN HER HEAT. I never thought I would see that day come (and I guess technically it didn’t since she jumped a hair early – but nonetheless…something to brag on her about after the disastrous breaststroke earlier in the afternoon).
The final event was backstroke. By this point, I was honestly just ready to get out of there. It was hot, Nathan was cranky, I was hungry, and the Auburn/LSU score was close. I was not optimistic there would be any improvement in time, and Sarah Kate was seeded into the last (i.e., most competitive) heat. Since she was in the outside lane, I walked around to the far side of the pool with Nathan to cheer her on. As soon as the horn went off, I started yelling and promptly made the baby cry. At that point, I almost quit, but instead tried to calm him quickly and kept yelling. I checked with the timekeeper after she hit the wall – 48:66! Her previous best was 53:72. Her time at that very first meet back was 1:26.38. Doing the math for you – that means she has cut her backstroke time in HALF since early June.
It was a fantastic way to end what was otherwise not a very enjoyable afternoon (for me, anyway). We headed out of there – straight to Panera Bread – and got home in time to see the second half of the game.
spectacular– Colleen