The Final Meet of the Season!

Wow. We thought this day would NEVER get here, and that we’d be swimming 4 days a week FOREVER… wait, that was just me. At any rate, yesterday, May 2, was the final swim meet of the season for the Pup! We had high hopes, and LOTS OF NERVES, and the pup fairly THRUMMED with excitement and nervous energy starting at 6pm Friday when she started carbo-loading. Heh.

We arrived bright and early, and got her into the locker room, dressed and ready to find out what events she was in. We knew of the four individual, and expected one relay – turns out, she was in TWO relays! Which meant that she was going to swim six times. It exhausts me just THINKING about it.

She was a little nervous too. Heh. However – it ended up being a HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL MEET for my baby girl, with only one little disappointment, that was STILL cause for celebration.

Here’s how it went down:

First up, and in the second event of the day which was like OMG MOM ITS LIKE SWIMMING FIRST! The pup and her teammates hit the pool for the 200yd IM Relay. The pup started them off with the backstroke, this time. The girls after her in the breaststroke and butterfly disqualified them, but for the pup? That just meant THIS TIME it WASN’T HER. So she was happy. They clocked in with a time that won’t count of: 3:59.59.

Up next, the 50yd Butterfly. The Pup’s been struggling to get a seed time in this event all year, having disqualified in it ever attempt to date. She was nervous, but I gave her a little pep talk and we watched some other swimmers do the butterfly, and she was ready to give it her all. AND SHE DID IT! It wasn’t the fastest in the lot by any means – though it was considerably faster than previous attempts – but she DID NOT DQ! She finally has a seed time of 1:23.34! YAY!

She’d been really concentrating on her 50yd Backstroke – it’s the stroke that she was closest to having an Honor Time for the team in – basically, 4th place, which would get her an award at the banquet. It also made her most nervous as she knew she’d have to take almost 3 seconds off her time. She did not do so – adding 2 seconds instead, however, for the first time she came in SECOND in her heat! SECOND! And she actually LEAD it off the block! So for that? It’s a HUGE VICTORY!

Previous time: 1:04.04
Yesteday’s time: 1:06.35
Difference: +2.31

She was disappointed, and it took a little while to shake that one off. And a package of goldfish. And hugs from Papa. But after the break, it was time for her next event.

The 50yd Breaststroke.

Now, last meet, she shaved off over THIRTY SECONDS off her breaststroke time, which was ASTONISHING, and we were beyond thrilled! We didn’t expect a repeat performance like that, but knew she’d do well. Even Coach Luke complemented her on her breaststroke last week – which had her GLOWING for DAYS. So, we expected a couple seconds off, and were hoping for a good clean event, without a DQ. We’re easily pleased.

And then we were STUNNED. Get a load of this:

Previous time: 1:28.34
Yesterday’s time: 1:10.28!!!
Difference: -17.72

Houston? I think we’ve found “her” stroke! And here we thought it would be backstroke all this time… *L* That’s like, 47 seconds off in the past three months! DEFINITELY something to be proud of! She does need to practice not going so deep off the blocks – she had to do a second pull down to get to the surface, which could have disqualified her, but they let it go. We are COMPLETELY thrilled!

We were definitely back on a high note, going into the 50 yd Freestyle. Funny thing about her freestyle, is that it’s always been just a little slower than her backstroke, which I guess is unusual, and amusing. But the best part about this event? MAH BABY DID A FLIP TURN! For the first time in competition! She’s been working hard on them all week, but had decided not to do one, as she wasn’t quite confident and thought it’d slow her down too much, and was too big a risk of disqualifying. Then? SHE DID IT ANYWAY! She told me afterwards “I did it for you, Mom. I knew you wanted to see me do one.” AWwwwww. God, I love that kid. So.. did it slow her down?

Previous time: 1:10.21
Yesterday’s time: 1:01.75!!!
Difference: -8.25!

Not only did it not slow her down, but she clocked in her best 50 free yet! Dude. I bought her a freakin T-shirt. They were actually putting on the decals right there, so you could design what you wanted them to look like. So my girl? Has “Swim Diva” on one shoulder of a purple tie dye t-shirt, and “iFlip” going down the left arm! Because? Time aside, MAH BABY DID A FLIP TURN!

That left us with one more event, her final relay, the 200yd Freestyle Relay. Her 50 was a little slower than before (hello – 6th event!) but STILL awesome with a 1:02.31! Though, none of them did flip turns during the relay… *L* The time?

Previous time: 4:01.58
Yesterday’s time: 3:36.61!
Difference: -24.39!

Whew. Color us EXHAUSTED. Not too exhausted for the pup to dash out and down to the neighbors for a bbq dinner, in 72 (!!!!!) degree weather that got her a nice sunburn too cuz her mom is still in the “huh? it’s not summer yet…” frame of mind. She did stop moving eventually though, which means this:

Inorite? Too cute.

For those that want videos – here ya go. I uploaded them in order, which means the play list has them backwards – cuz I forgot about that little playlist quirk. Heh. But enjoy! (I recommend turning the volume OFF. That crazy lady was yelling again, and surrounded by family other crazy ladies doing the same thing. 🙂 ) Enjoy!