"A" Championships Days 2 and 3

Natalie is starting to have little routines before she swims in a race. She usually cracks all her joints, including her neck. Today she started stretching and jumping up and down as well as shaking her arms and legs individually. That's all well and good, but what has also developed as a routine, at least for the meet this weekend, has been the tears and disappointment after almost each race. Frankly, this behavior stresses me out.

Yesterday she swam in the 100 yard backstroke and the 50 yard butterfly. She added time to her previous personal best in both. This meet has so many really fast swimmers, so swimming slower than her personal best didn't make the cut. At least she was able to qualify for the consolation final for the 100 yard backstroke--14th place out of 25 swimmers. She was still not happy and was still pouting before her next race. For the 50 yard butterfly, she already started 27th out of 27 before the race, but after the race, she dropped to 35th place. She was inconsolable. Finally, Patrick and I had to be completely straight with her. It was okay to be disappointed, but it was not okay to let it affect your other races. She agreed, but it will take time.

We had a little break before coming back to swim in the 100 yard backstroke final. She got to rest at home and play on her Kindle. For the final, she came in second in the consolation final, for a 10th place overall. With a time of 1:19.32, she dropped almost one second off her previous best (1:20.18). At least she was not unhappy. She felt much better--still disappointed that she didn't do "better", but at least satisfied that she had a new personal best.

Today, Natalie's only individual event was the 100 yard butterfly. She was seeded 20th out of 21 with a time of 1:24.98, so I warned her not to expect too much. Her time was barely an "A" time, and all of the other swimmers had "AA" and "AAA" standard times. Of course, even if she knew that, she didn't feel that way when she came in dead last, over six seconds over her personal best (1:31.74). She placed 20th out of 20, just because one of the swimmers was sick and didn't swim.

The saving grace today was her friend Devin. Devin came to visit partly to support Natalie, but also to sell girl scout cookies. Natalie hung out with her after the race. She chatted and she got to laugh with her friend. In the meantime, four of the swimmers dropped out, probably because this was the last day of the meet and they were from out of town and wanted to go ahead and head home. That meant that Natalie would again get to come back in the evening for the third day and swim in a consolation final. She had another chance to improve her time.

She also swam in the 200 yard Medley relay, with three girls that she already knew and could chat with while they awaited their turn. During her leg, doing the 50 yard butterfly, she did very well. It wasn't her personal best, but at least she showed that she could swim an "A" standard time in the 50 yard butterfly again. Her mood was lifted again, and so was mine.

For the 100 yard butterfly consolation final, she came in last again, but she had a slightly better time than her previous personal best (1:24.95). She was in better spirits, thank goodness. We got to go on our now traditional post-meet dinner at Panera Bread followed by a trip for ice cream at Brindles. She's looking forward to a day off tomorrow, and so am I. Patrick and I logged in about 18 hours of volunteer time during this meet, but even the long hours were less tiring than our daughter's emotional roller coaster. We ALL get a day off tomorrow from that.