After quite a long hiatus from the blocks and some inkling of going to IGLA in Washington DC next year, I decided to take the plunge and sign up for a meet. Given that it’s now short course meters season, the likely venue for IGLA, it seemed like a good opportunity to get a notion of what reasonable entry times would be. The last meet I swam in was IGLA Paris (2000!), and the only thing that I really remember about my swimming was that fishnet stockings provide much more drag--in the water that is--than one might think. So I picked a handful of events (50 fly, 100 breast, 200 free and 200 IM), drove up to Santa Clarita on Saturday, October 20th and deck entered what I hoped would be times that I could easily beat. That way I could worry about more realistic challenges such as not disqualifying myself after seven years of practicing illegal turns, keeping my goggles on as I entered the water and not false starting.
Upon walking onto the pool deck whom did I see finishing the 1500? None other than Dan Adams, who said that he swam well but unfortunately his time wasn’t as fast as he hoped. No worries Dan. You made up for it on the 100 breast when you swam almost the entire race with your goggles around your neck and were only a tenth of a second off your best time. (Hmmmm…. don't know why I was worried about that.) Dan finished off the day with a 50 fly, but requested that I not divulge the results of that race. It should be sufficient to know that my time was faster--I mean come on Dan, really.
The real star of the day, fashion footwear expert and third WH20 swimmer in attendance was Gregg Orgorzelec, who swam the 100, 200 and 400 free. Our newly ordained Most Improved Swimmer of the Year dropped his 400 free time by two seconds from just two weeks prior at Mission Viejo with an impressive 4:37.32. Gregg’s 50 split times demonstrated his great pacing! Way to go Gregg! And you looked fabulous in those red pumps (well, Crocks) you were wearing on the deck. Gregg also turned in an impressive 2:08.79 for the 200 free. (Sorry Gregg, I missed your 100 time.)
As for me, I can say that I did indeed beat all the times I entered, although the 200 IM by only 2 seconds (d’oh) and didn’t DQ (yeah). One nice thing about small meets is they go by fast. I have to admit I felt like I swam a workout more than a meet given how fast the events came up. So for all of you thinking about IGLA there are two more meets in this short course meters season – Woodland Hills Turkey Shoot on Sunday, November 18th and Regional Championships hosted by Long Beach Grunions (“Two words. fa boo” – Marc St. James) November 30th through December 2nd.
