Hello....Jagdeesh? Bueller? BUELLER?!?!

Well, I've returned home from the BC Provincial Championships in Kelowna. It was quite an adventure as you might gather from the title. You might be thinking... who on Earth is Jagdeesh? Well, I can tell you that at 3:30am on the first night at the Hotel.. my buddy Joe and I thought we had received the wakeup call for the swim meet. And when he answered the phone... he said "hello" into the receiver and the person on the other end said... "Hello..Jagdeesh?" and Joe being disoriented as he was .. said "uhh..no" and hung up. Meanwhile, I thought it was the actual wakeup call and was starting to get ready when Joe finally told me that it was a false alarm and eventually went back to sleep after the 2nd or third time he told me (That's how out of it I was!).
In any event, we finally got the wakeup call and headed to the pool. My first day was "so-so". I was a bit off on all my races but considering I only got about 4 hours sleep that night, it wasn't too bad considering.
My times the first day were as follows:
50m backstroke - 37.03
100m backstroke - 1:20.10
200m freestyle - 2:40.50

That night, we left the meet and went to a banquet. That's where the other part of the title comes in. The MC at this banquet, he was a real tyrant. My buddy Joe thought that he reminded him of the principal from the movie Ferris Bueller's Day off.... I couldn't stop laughing when he said that.. because I realize how true it was. He was so irritating. He kept saying things like "THE BAR IS CLOSED!!" and "ONLY ONE TABLE AT A TIME! SIT DOWN!" .. and I was thinking to myself.. get a chill pill buddy... he also had this really bad scowl on his face and seemed completely miserable... put a total dampener on the mood. Not that the mood was that lively to begin with as most people were quite tired from the meet. I was practically falling asleep at our table. I felt as though I had lead weights on my eyes and just wanted to collapse right then and there...
Fortunately, we got back to the hotel at a reasonable hour and then fell asleep at around 10:00pm. The next morning I felt quite rested and had a lot more energy than Saturday. This new found energy also reflected in my times. I did 2 best times on Sunday out of 2 races which was great. My times were as follows:
100 IM - 1:18.50
200 back - 2:54.40

I negative split my backstroke race which even surprised me... I knew I took it out easy and I really wanted to work the second half. I guess I really got it down pat. I just remember telling myself after the first 50... ok not yet.. not yet.. not yet...and then when I flipped after the 100, I said to myself..ok now start to pick it up.. and wow.. what a great race. I was really happy with the way I swam it.

So in the end, the meet overall was pretty good. I am satisfied with myself. I think this will be the last meet of the season for me. I am not planning on going to either nationals or worlds as I know I would just get slaughtered. That's ok though.. maybe in a couple of years :-)

I'm hoping to get some photos of my backstroke race e-mailed to me and then I can put them up here. It should be great. For a more complete sequence of events of this weekend, you can check it out on my buddy Joe's blog.

Until next time...