Regional Long Course (LC) Championship
I mentioned in a previous post how impressive it is when she holds a strong steady pace and then really turns it on and comes from behind for the win, but this weekend in the 100 free in particular, she impressed me in a slightly different way...by really going for a race from the get go, no holding back. Going in ranked 4th, she took a commanding lead basically right from the start and held off the competition with the win in 1:08.27LC by over a second. Super great race to watch! Super proud mom, not so much about the wins or the time (although they are impressive), but by her pushing herself, her perseverance and strength!
HAC Novice vs vice-coach
This year I began as a coach in training for the Novice kids with HAC, it has been a very fun experience. The kids are so great and cute and I love seeing them progress and enjoy swimming! I have been working with Lisa Hodge, the head novice coach, and one of the kids Mikey coined me as "vice-coach" which I love and it has sort of stuck.
This weekend we had a little event where they swam in a continuous relay "against" me, while I just swam continuously. It was so funny when Henry said "we never ever ever ever...ever stop!" Well we did after about 35 minutes... I could hear the kids cheering, and I will hold that in my memorybank as something to call up to help me when I hit a hard patch during my Lake Ontario crossing.
It is great having the kids be interested in my crossing and super nice of HAC to make a "Good Luck Vice-coach" banner which all the kids signed.
I look forward to coaching next year!
See the event write-up in HAC's newsletter: http://www.hamiltonaquaticclub.ca/June2011-3.pdf
Some cute pictures of some of the kids I got while they were warming up and more available here
2nd LOST swim & my 3rd Lake O swim this year
I will link this story to Rob's blog on the LOST website: http://lostswimming.com/?p=2356. This was actually my 3rd swim in Lake Ontario this year as we went on Thursday evening in Hamilton when I was in for about 40 minutes. Followed by a few good minutes of shivering while Dahlia played at the splash-pad area.
5k night swim in Welland canal
Christine is also swimming across Lake Ontario this summer and was nice enough to offer us to stay over-night at her place in St. Catherines, Saturday (with Cadence's meet at Brock it was very convenient for us) and go for a night swim with her in Welland canal. This was a pretty cool, freaky experience. We had glow sticks on our arms, which were so fun as you swam through the darkness. The boys were in kayaks all lit up by glow sticks. (Bill had bought a head-lamp too but a little malfunction of not having a screwdriver to open up the battery compartment rendered it useless for this night anyways) but we had a big strong flashlight and when he put it on in the kayak it made the kayak glow. So cool!This was the longest (at about 1 hour 40/45 minutes) I had been in coldish water this year and I realized although things have been going well with me getting in cold water so far that I need to start increasing the length of time I stay in it and push through the point when the cold just really completely sets into the body.
I also discovered I need to work my mind a bit more around the fact that out in the lake there will be no cues to how far I have gone or how far I have to go... Remember when you were a kid in the back seat on a road trip "Are we there yet?"...Out in the darkness I felt a bit this way and it will be even more so out in the middle of the Lake. All the racing I have done so far has mile markers or I have a lap counter or an odometer, even swimming LOST, it is along the shore and you recognize land markers... It will be different and I'm glad I am aware of this ahead.A great fun experience thanks to Christine!!!
All in all a really great weekend full of wet adventures...
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