First Swim Meet Since October

Natalie swam today, in her first swim meet since October. It's been a long road with many ups and downs. Today went well in that she wasn't hurting before or after her races. We'll see how she feels tomorrow and beyond.

This is just a photo of what her friend Anna wrote on her back. They write silly things on their backs for swim meets, and it was nice to see Natalie smiling and laughing and enjoying herself.

This is the usual picture that I get when I try to get a picture of her. She either turns her head, holds something in front of her face so I only get a picture of the item and not her face, or she looks indignant that I dare to take a photo of her. At least this is a good photo of her pretty teeth after her braces were removed! :)

Soon after we got to the neighborhood pool, we found out that one of the older girls was sick and couldn't come to the meet. One of the coaches asked Natalie to swim the 50m Freestyle in the Girls 15-18 200m Freestyle Relay in that girl's place, so we wouldn't have to forfeit the points our team gets from relays. Natalie was more than willing, although a little afraid since she hasn't done a 50m Freestyle in a race since September. Patrick is usually the most cautious, wanting only to protect Natalie from doing too much too soon. Natalie swam in that race, and she did great. That set the tone for the rest of the meet.

Natalie had asked Alex to come to her meet since he was at home and it was a home meet. He really made her day when he showed up and watched three of Natalie's races and three of Eric's races. He told me he would not have minded staying longer, but he had a friend who spent the night and who was with him, and he didn't want to burden his friend with having to stay for this very long meet.

Natalie for once, agreed to get her picture taken and just look at that beautiful smile! Alex only consented to being photographed if he didn't have to look at the camera. I'm not sure if he was trying to look cool or what. I still LOVE this photo!

It was good to see Natalie's pre-race routine again, with the stretches and pops and all. I took mostly video of all of their races. I had to leave before they both swam in the Medley races, because I had asked a friend to extend her Friday overnight call to cover me this morning, and I didn't want to abuse her favor any more than I had to.

Two of the other swim parents, who have always been so complementary of Natalie's swimming, came up to me today saying that they were excited that Natalie was swimming today. They both said they missed seeing her swim because she is so "beautiful" when she swims, and that they were looking forward to seeing her swim today. My heart was just bursting with joy at how kind they were!

The rest of this post is just statistics for me to remember, so feel free to skip it.

Event 9--Girls 15-18 200m Freestyle Relay--2nd place with a time of 2:35.44

--Natalie swam the anchor leg on our "B" team, meaning that it was the slower team. One of her teammates, who is 15, doesn't even dive off the blocks. It's great that she still swims on the team, because she has gotten slightly better over time, but she is not fast. Natalie said she felt a little hesitant to dive off the blocks herself, because she hasn't done it since October, but she looked good, and she had a decent time. She also made up a little ground on the other teams during her leg.

Event 17--Girls 11-12 25m Freestyle--2nd place with a time of 16.25

--Natalie was beaten by her frequent relay teammate Rylee. Rylee has always been fast at Freestyle, but she also started swimming year round this past year when Natalie has not been swimming. Natalie looked noticeably disappointed. Of course, Patrick and I were trying to reassure her as we always do, that she just started swimming again and she should expect an upward curve, but not right away. She had planned to not take a breath for the whole 25m, but she said she ended up taking a breath and she felt like that slowed her down. Rylee finished with a time of 15.44 sec.

Event 29--Girls 11-12 25m Backstroke--1st place with a time of 17.97

--Natalie won by a couple of body lengths. The girl who got second place had a time of 20.06 sec. Before the race, Natalie said she felt unsure of her stroke count to get to the wall (since in backstroke, you can't see the wall), so she had to look a couple of times before she finished. She did such a great job, and this is when I took that photo of her with Alex above.

Event 57--Girls 11-12 25m Butterfly--1st place with a time of 17.00

--The parents I mentioned above (and some others) always tell me how beautiful Natalie looks especially when she swims butterfly. Her teammate Rylee got second place with a time of 17.72 sec. Everyone else was two seconds behind them. Natalie's times are about the same as last year, so I feel confident that if she stays healthy, she start dropping time again.

Event 67--Girls 11-12 100m Medley Relay--1st place with a time of 1:23.60

--I had to leave after Natalie's Butterfly race, because I had to go to work, so I didn't see this one. Based on the results sheet, they won by 7 seconds, and Natalie swam the Freestyle (fourth) leg. Patrick said he took video of the race, so I'm looking forward to watching it when I get home tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I'll give Eric his own blog post. We have so many things to be proud of him for, and I want to give him his own space.