Sunday 28 July 2013

On the Block, Take Your Mark, GO!

Last week, Hannah had her very first swim meet.  She decided to enter 3 events which guaranteed we'd be spending at least 8 hours sitting on the bleachers.  I had volunteered to work  the concession stand with two other ladies, which is where I learned to do this to my child's arm:
:
Coaches expect each swimmer  to have their own particular information posted with permanent ink on their arm or leg.

E= Event   H=Heat   L=Lane  S=Stroke

This way, at a glance, both swimmer and coach knows when each athlete needs to swim and in which lane they should be.

That morning, Hannah had asked if she could use the inferior goggles for the meet since the Speedo ones were too tight. I was a bit dubious, but if she wanted to use the $4 Wal-mart goggles, that was fine with me.

Her first event was the 50 meter Freestyle and when she dived off the blocks, the goggles ended up around her mouth.  Not super conducive for a good finishing time.  After that event, she had a few hours until her next event, so Dan took her to the sports shop and bought her some non-fogging Speedo goggles so she could destroy her final 2 events.

Her 2nd event was another 50 meter Freestyle, and her new goggles weren't tight enough so they flipped and filled with water when she entered the pool.  But her time was about 2 seconds faster than her first event, so yeay, right?  Her final event was a 100 meter Freestyle.  That would mean she had to lap the pool four times.  She had left her inhaler at home, so Dan had gone back to get it.   He brought back what he could find.  She took a few puffs before her event since she has been having trouble breathing on longer events.  Even so, she finished dead last and gasping for air.  Turns out the inhaler Dan found was one we had SIX YEARS ago in Bosnia.  It was a little expired. Which is probably why Hannah couldn't breathe.  Or swim.

Despite the troubles, she got a 6th place ribbon for her 2nd event.  And we threw away the old inhaler, so we're totally ready for next time!