November 7th marked my fourth anniversary with United States Masters Swimming!
4th Swim Anniversary Collage
Top (l-to-r): Members of my swim club, Sun Devil Masters, helping me show off my Third-place relay medal at Summer Nationals -- Me showing off one of my old "bar" tricks (balancing a salt shaker) -- My swim board. I've added so much stuff to it in four years I think I'm going to have to start another one.
Middle (l-to-r): Someone snapped a picture of me warming up in the rain during a noon workout. My club parka -- Me with my coveted medal
Bottom (l-to-r): My best swim friend Elaine and Me at Summer Nationals -- My kickass swim team at Summer Nationals (we won 1st place Regional Team -- 1st place Men's and 1st place Women's)
Since my swim year starts in November, the first "official" meet for me is the Ron Johnson Invitational, held at my home pool. This particular year I swam in a lot of relays and had a ton of fun.
Me and my mixed relay team at the 2012 Ron Jon
The next highlight was attending the Swim Diva Holiday Party. I ended up with a "gift" of 50+ Olympic Trial swim caps. I have too many already!!! LOL!
Know anyone who needs a cap?
The next meet was the January Polar Bear held at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where I swam my fastest 50 ever!!!.
Wendy from the Phoenix Swim Club (left) and Helen ("of Troy") from Tucson Ford Masters.
Two wonderful Masters Swimming ambassadors.
I missed out on a couple of meets due to a weird hip injury, but I didn't let that stop me from having fun as a volunteer at the Mesa Grand Prix in April.
Clark Burckle (back toward camera), Matt Grevers (to Clark's right), and
Mike Alexandrov (making a point). Lots of Olympic representation at the Mesa Grand Prix
In late April, I made a huge change to my swimming schedule, and switched from swimming workouts at 6 PM to the noon hour. This was my first summer swimming through the day-time Arizona heat. But you know what? I think it really helped me be better acclimated to our searing summer temperatures. The first few weeks when the temps were well above 100, I could really feel the fatigue, but as the weeks went on, it no longer mattered even when it topped out at 119 on the 29th of June. It just felt good to be in the water. Plus, I'm sporting a really bitchin' tan!! (And, yes, I do wear sunscreen.)
My noon "watering hole" -- McClintock High School -- Tempe, AZ
The next big event on my calendar was Summer Nationals in Mission Viejo, which I posted about earlier in August.
Here's a video of me swimming the 50 meter Breaststroke at Summer Nationals
(I'm in lane 6 near the top of the video wearing a white cap)
My next swim meet took place at high altitude in Flagstaff mid-October. Talk about a strange experience. This was my first time swimming above 7000 feet and my body did not like it. I'll swim this meet next year, but I've already told myself "Nothing over a 50!!" One of the highlights of this trip was watching a "daddy/daughter" kick grudge match (of course, the daughter won).
Several members of my swim team cheering on the kickers in the grudge match
On November 3rd, I swam at the Mesa Aquatics Fall Classic meet. In this particular meet, I didn't swim very fast, but someone else sure did. None other than Olympic swimmer Darian Townsend. He set 5 USMS World Records at this meet within a 2 hour time frame. I can't think of a better way to end my fourth year of swimming, and what a perfect beginning to my fifth!
Darian Townsend (photo by Mike Lewis -- Ola Vista Photography via SwimSwam)
