Japan Masters Swim Meet

Hurray! I swam in my first Masters swim meet on Sunday! I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Well, I knew it would be overwelming. I knew I would be self-concious. And I knew it would be exhuasting. And I was right about all of those things. But it was also a lot of fun! And I think I've found my level of competition! Finally!

The diversity of people was absolutely enthralling--endless people watching! There were over 1000 swimmers aged 18-100 from Hokkaido to Kyushu! In a Japanese sort of way there were people of all shapes and sizes, but I still stuck out like a sore thumb. Japanese women don't have chests, hips or thighs. I have all three. The blonde hair didn't help either, but luckily that was under a swim cap most of the day. I also wasn't sporting one of the trendy suits! I'm a cheap skate. And really, the only thing that is going to make me go faster is more practice, not a cool looking suit!

As with most competitions, I was really nervous about where I would fit. Would I be the slowest? Would I be in the middle? I've never been the fastest at anything, so that wasn't really an option in my head. I was just hoping I would be able to compete, that is, actually race at the same level as others in my heat!

There was a lot of pre-race confusion about who was swimming what, when the event was, where we were supposed to go, etc. But after a few moments of panic we all figured it out and I got ready for my first race...100 Breast. I was glad it was my first because in my head it was my most important. Breast is my event. I wanted to put all my energy into this race. But I haven't really been training or sprinting much. During the actual swim, the first 50 felt great, but the last 50 was a struggle. I was feeling the lactic acid burn and not feeling like I could move much at all. My first 25, I was pretty even with the woman in the next lane. But after the 50, she pulled ahead and finished about 3 seconds ahead of me. I was bummed, but it was good to have someone next to me to motivate me to go a little faster and push myself. In the end I got first in my age group (ha ha ha, I was the only one in my age group swimming that event). But I also got second in the entire event! I was the youngest swimmer. The woman who beat me is from Uozu....I wonder if she will be my competition in the 50 brst in October?

The 100IM and 25free in the 100Medley Relay were fun to swim. But I didn't give them my all. I swam the IM to try something different. I would swim it again, but it's something I excel at!

Seriously, it was a great day...but a huge thanks to Linea for being my partner in crime. Could not have, probably, would not have done this without her. It is so much easier to do something NEW--new group of people, foreign language, new event, new rules, etc. when you have someone else to work it out with you. When we could, we cheered for each other on the sidelines. Our new team mates were always there to give us a "gambatte" or "otsakaresama" but hearing a deep English grunt calling out your name from the side can't be replaced! I needed it! Gokorosamadesita!

After the races, the bento, lots of Aquarius, a shower, hot cross buns, chocolate eggs, a lesson on Easter, a lesson on how to say our names, recording our times, strutting our stuff on deck, and lots of pictures with the old men....we made our way to a izikaya in Kurobe and gorged ourselves on fried food, sashimi and salad. The other swimmers were guzzling beer, but I felt drunk from exhaustion, I didn't need the beer! Linea and I ate our food, collected our medals, promised to join the team and headed home to bed! It was a 13-hour day! In your own culture that is one kind of exhaustion, but when you are trying to navigate another culture it adds another level of exhaustion. We both had headaches. Tanoshikatta, demo segoi tsukaretta!

In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I finally paid my dues and joined the team tonight! I'm already planning what I want to swim in the next meet in October. And I think I'll be much more inspired to train for it now that I know what to expect.

Times:

100m Brst 1'31"81 (gold medal)
100m IM 1'29"33 (bronze medal)
100 Medley Relay 1'10 (didn't get splits)

I'm not sure how accurate this website does yard-meter conversions. For fun, I wanted to know how I compared to my college times. So, if I had swam in a yard pool, this would have been my times:

100yd Brst 1'22"26
100yd IM isn't listed as an option! ha ha ha

The brst time, is only a second off from my conference time in college! Wow!!! I had no idea. Maybe if I train a little more, I can actually get a personal best in my 100 brst. That would be awesome. Too bad I can't swim it for another year!