BC Provincials Day 1 Report

Well, what can I say? I did really well today in all of my races. In fact, our whole team did well. I think virtually everybody who swam did a best time. Some other outstanding performances from the team include: Daryl 41.58 - 50m breaststroke, Kyra 1:06.77 - 100m freestyle and 1:16.67 for 100m butterfly, Carl 1:09.81 - 100m freestyle and 1:22.16 for 100m I.M., Charles 1:16.28 - 100m freestyle, Scott 1:18.77 - 100m butterfly and even Darren who has basically come to only 3 practices in the past month was able to pull off a 1:03.96 for 100m freestyle and a 30.35 for 50m butterfly. Unfortunately, Kim did not show up due to illness but apparently she is supposed to come tomorrow.. so we'll see how that goes.

In any case, I got to the pool about 5 minutes late for warmup but it was no big deal as most people ended up late. I don't know why on earth they made the warmup start at 7:00am. I still think personally that this is way too early but it didn't seem to affect me too much. Actually when I dove in and started my warmup, I felt really great. My muscles felt relaxed for the most part and I felt fast through the water. I don't know what it is but there is something about this pool that seems really fast... Anyways, after warmup was over, I went and relaxed a bit and was told by Suzanne (another Hyack coach) that they needed a backstroker for their 4x50 medley relay which was the 2nd event as the backstroker which they already had was unable to come due to work commitments that early in the morning...As a result, I swam the 50m backstroke on the medley relay. In hindsight, I'm kind of glad that I did it as it was a good warmup for my 200m backstroke later in the day.
The referee blew the whistle to get into the water to start the relay. I got ready on the blocks and focused on getting a quick and powerful start. When the beep sounded, I had a great reaction time and a fairly decent start. The first 25 metres felt very smooth and effortless and then my flipturn was pretty on as well. I did a couple of dolphin kicks and then poured it on the 2nd 25. I probably ended up even splitting the 50, at least that is how it felt. My final time when I touched the wall was a 35.66. I was pretty pleased with that as it was by far my best time in a race and even 3 tenths faster than what I did in practice that one time. The rest of the people swam the remaining legs of the relay and I think everyone else did pretty well too.

I had a long wait until my next race which was the 200 backstroke. After the relay, I did a quick warm down in the adjacent pool which was set aside for that purpose.. As the 200m backstroke race was approaching, I was feeling pretty nervous as I was hoping for a good time, although I didn't know if I would totally blow my time away or maybe just improve by a little bit. I was seeded fastest in my heat with an entry time of 2:50.00 and so I had a good shot at winning the heat. I talked to coach Brad in terms of my strategy to follow in the 200 and he really emphasized to me to work the 3rd 50 which I made a mental note of. Eventually, I was up for the 200m backstroke and the referee blew the whistle. I got into the water. The ref said take your marks and beep and I was off. My start was fairly decent as well. I don't think it was good as my 50m backstroke start but it was not that bad either. The first 100m felt strong and smooth and I didn't really get fatigued that much. When I flipped at the wall for the 100m, I could see that I was at least a body length or two ahead of everyone else. The 3rd 50, I really cranked it hard as I remembered what coach Brad said. I think I managed to extend my lead to another body length or so from what I could gather. The last 50 hurt a bit but I was still able to hang on and when I touched the wall, I didn't immediately look at the clock but then when I looked at it, I saw that I had won my heat by 4 seconds. My final time was 2:46.46 and here are my splits:
38.70
1:21.27
2:03.68
2:46.46

I think the pacing here was much better than English Bay as that 3rd 50 in English Bay was pretty brutal. I more than made up for that here which was good. On a side note, Scott did a fairly decent 200m backstroke time in the heat after mine with a 2:42.27. I think he might have been aiming for under 2:40 but overall from my vantage point, it looked pretty good.

My last race of the day was the 50m butterfly. This was my fun race of the day as I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't have long to wait between the 200m backstroke and the 50m butterfly with only the 100m I.M. in between. I got up on the blocks when the ref blew the whistle. The ref said take your marks and then held it for a while. I almost lost my balance and so I had to lean back up a bit and then by the time I did that, they said go and I got a really bad start off the blocks. The race itself was pretty good and my stroke and turn were not bad. I still managed with a 34.27 which is a half a second improvement from my time at English Bay. I think had I gotten a better start, I could have been under 34. Carl and Kyra nipped me at the end of the 50 with a 34.10 and a 33.87 respectively. I guess next time let's see if I can even up the score...

Overall, I am quite satisifed with my first day of racing at provincials. I can only hope that tomorrow will go better. I have the grueling 800m freestyle as the last race. I hope to be able to conserve all my energy for that as I think I'll need it...