When I first heard about the Inaugural Matt Biondi Classic swim meet, I knew I had to go! The event was held on March 23, in Simi Valley, California on a beautiful Spring day.
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| The Rancho Conjeo Community Pool - site of the Inaugural Matt Biondi Classic - courtesy of TakeItLive |
I was lucky enough to convince my coach to make the trip with me, and shortly thereafter, we learned that our teammate and AZ LMSC Chairman, Terry, was also making the trip with his family. Terry was Matt's roommate at Cal back in the day, so I knew there was a good chance that I might be lucky enough to meet this decorated Olympian, but to my surprise, I had the privilege of having dinner with him! After the meet, Matt and his significant other Amy, my coach Katy, and Terry and his beautiful family (and lucky ole me), had a delightful seafood dinner nearby.
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| Lisa, Terry, Matt, and Amy |
Of course, I had to indulge in the local brew, 805, which is named after the area code of Ventura County.
Instead of staying near the pool, Katy and I opted to stay near the beach in Ventura. What a great idea that was. After arriving on Saturday, we headed downtown for some food and found a really nice bistro-style Italian restaurant. Afterward we strolled around town and then down to the beach.
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| Ready for lunch! |
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| Me and Katy -- Happy to be at the beach!! |
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| View of the Ventura Pier and some seashore flora |
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| The Beautiful Ventura City Hall |
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| View from City Hall |
The swim meet proved to be nothing short of awesome! Since it was the inaugural meet, everyone who placed 1st was guaranteed a pool record. Since we had one more Arizona swimmer, John, who made the trip besides me, Katy, and Terry, we were able to swim the mixed freestyle relay and, you guessed it, we placed first!
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Number One in the 35+ 200 Mixed Freestyle Relay!
John, Terry, Me, and Katy |
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| Our First Place relay "ribbons" -- bag tags with a picture of Matt Biondi. Nice!! |
I ended up swimming a personal best in the 50 Freestyle and placed 3rd in my age group. In my other events, I swam close to my PBs from 2011. For a swimmer, that's exciting to say the least!
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| I had this custom t-shirt made at the meet. A pretty cool memento! |
So, suffice it to say, I think the Matt Biondi Classic is going to be on my calendar every Spring for years to come.
