Swim meet

Last weekend, Bill, Braiden, Dave, and I drove to Campinas (a town two hours from Sao Paulo) so that I could compete in my first Brazilian swimming tournament. My coach recruited me to swim as he said the team from my gym needed more women entrants. Saturday morning was cold and I was not pleased to learn, upon arrival, that we would be swimming in an outdoor pool. I was entered in just one event, the 800m freestyle, along with 34 other female competitors. We were grouped in heats of eight based on previous race times. As I didn't have any previous 800m times on record, I was put in the slowest group and was the only person below the age of 60 in our heat which was the first swim of the morning.

After a solid warm up, I got increasingly nervous as the time came for me to step up onto the block. When the signal to start swimming - a loud beep - finally went off, I dove into the heated pool, only to have my worst fear realized: my goggles came off my face. I managed to keep swimming and adjusted them back into place, my eyes stinging as I gasped for breath in an effort to not slow down. Despite my inauspicious start I managed to keep a steady pace and finish with a time of 14:26:02 (a number I didn't find out until I showed up to swim at the gym on Monday). Cold and eager to not stand around for the rest of the morning watching strangers, we left soon after I showered and changed; one of the later heats of my event was still in progress.

Monday morning I arrived at the gym and started my workout like usual. After my 45 minute swim, I got out of the pool and my coach showed me a sheet with the results: I had come in third! I was a little sad that we hadn't stuck around, but at least Braiden, Bill, and I had posed for a joke photo on the podium, so I did get to stand on it. And, yesterday after swimming, I finally got my bronze medal.