I am heading to my final long course meet this summer at U.S. Masters Nationals in Geneva, Ohio. Knowing I had Masters Nationals approaching, I decided to swim only the 50 free this past weekend in Chapel Hill. I am familiar with the pool and it required no travel. The meet was set up as prelims and finals, along with time trials. It was an age group meet including 12 and under so I really stood out at 43. During the race video at the end of this post, you can hear the announcer joking about our age difference.
I raced the 50 free three times on Saturday (prelims, finals and a late night time trial). The fastest of my three attempts was in the finals session with a time of 26.71. Although this was a little slower than last weekend's time in Greensboro (26.57), it was good experience heading into this weekend at Masters Nationals. Since the meet was local, I had some friends from Golden Corral come to cheer me on. They included Robin Lowe, Sue Carpenter and her husband, David, in addition to my mom and dad and Eric.
This week I focused on speed work, technique and continued rest to extend my taper. Eric and I fly out to Cleveland tomorrow morning. Although I've never been to this pool, I've heard it is an incredible, state-of-the-art indoor facility called the Spire Institute. My individual events include the 50 and 100 fly, 50 and 100 back, and 50 and 100 free. Our NC women are hoping to take down a few more relay world records, but we need to overcome a few injuries. We bought these cute hot pink NC tank tops for our relay...North Carolina Strong!
50 Free Race Video - 26.71 (Lane 4 - Blue Cap)
NC Women tank top for U.S. Masters Nationals