National Champions

Warning: before you scroll any further into this blog entry, be warned that there are going to be photos of me WITHOUT a shirt on. Heck, there's even one photo of me in only a Speedo. Now, this is not unreasonable, given that it was a swim race, but it may be shocking to those of you who are not Smelts (or members of my past swim teams in Terrace, Montreal, and even Halifax) to see exactly how pale I am. Fish belly white is my natural shade. Let's leave it at that.

This will be a long post. Yea, it shall be Ruth-ian in nature. I will do what I can to live up to the standard my teammate has set in writing about various swim competitions. It won't be nearly so go as hers, but it should fit my blog.

Ready? Good.

Noblesville, Indiana, was the home for the inaugural US Masters Swimming 25 km open water swim national championships. Swimmers had two options: do all 25 km solo, or be part of a 5-person team, each person swimming the 5 km loop once. Since I'll be up in Vancouver the weekend of Big Shoulders, and since I'm not running a marathon this year, I thought this sounded like a terrific goal to work toward.

Conrad and I left Chicago mid-afternoon on Friday, driving
the 3 or so hours southeast to Noblesville. Never been there? It's a handsome little bedroom community outside Indianapolis. Green, rolling. Cute downtown, nicely preserved. Our hotel had us in smoking rooms, but we managed to move to a less-smoky one with little difficulty. It was too late for us to take part in the pasta dinner for the swimmers, so we drove into the downtown, parked near the courthouse square, and settled in for a decent dinner (not photographed - shocking, I know) at an Italian restaurant there, sitting out on the sidewalk at tables there.


We each had the sea bass special, shared a half litre of white wine, and enjoyed the warm evening. I mean, I know I had a big swim the next morning, but it's not so different from when we dine well at home or at Yoshi's, say, and then I haul my butt out of bed to be at the rec centre at 6 the next morning to get 6000 yards in. Why not enjoy it?

As a bonus, we were rewarded with a stunning sunset when we got back to the hotel.

I slept poorly last night. Really poorly. A shift in time zone didn't help. Nerves. Excitement. You know, this was my first open water race since Big Shoulders 2003, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew I could swim the amount of time/distance, but in a lake? And with water temperature expected to be at about 85 Fahrenheit degrees? I really was a little daunted.

We were up just after 5 and due at the start site by 6:15 or so. Most of the Illinois Masters (and most of were Smelts) stayed at the same hotel, so we shared some rides and made it out there no problem. Tim drove up from Indianapolis that morning - we miss him in lane 5. And how is it that a redhead like him can be so tan? Not fair! Conrad roamed around taking photos of us and everyone else getting ready.


I think it's the first sunrise he's seen in, oh, ever?!


Time flew by, and 7:00 was almost upon us. We gawked as the 25 km swimmers headed into the water.

Mike, from lane 3 (I didn't get his picture, and I don't yet know how he did in the end), was doing the full solo swim, but we barely saw him to be able to wish him well. Driving back this afternoon, we realized that he would have been done about the time we got home to our apartment. I hope he had fun.

Group photos (thanks Conrad!),
and then our turn. We had a 7:30 start for the relay. Now, they called it a relay, and that truly was the original intent, but logistics forced them to have all team members swim in the same wave. To get the final results, they would add the 5 times together for each team. Time to get the goggles on (and YAY for not making us wear caps!!) and head into the water. I was told afterwards that it was 82 degrees. It wasn't soupy, warm, awful. The noteworthy thing was that Dave was not moaning and shivering as we entered. A comfortable temperature, and we even hit some cool spots on the return leg of the swim.

The organizers asked the slower people to stay back and let the fast people go ahead. Whoa - what the heck am I doing up there?

Chatting with Tim and Adam, I guess. Anyway, it wasn't a horrible mess at the start with lots of kicking, splashing, biting, hair pulling. The slower people DID stay back, for the most part, and it was a relatively easy start.


Conrad didn't take photos of the swim itself. 2.5 km up one side of an arm of Morse Reservoir, and then back, with some bumps and "curves" in the course to make it a little tricky. Conrad, Ron, and Spencer headed to Starbucks, and we stroked forward.

Put simply: I had fun. The water was a great temperature. My stroke and pace felt fine and consistent. Going out I was sandwiched for a while between Tim on my left and some big guy on my right. I was alongside Adam at the turn, and I swear I was just near Chris right after the midpoint. We swam past handsome homes, some with really kick-ass deck furniture. Yes, we notice these things while swimming. I lost track of time, and with the sun in my eyes and the white buoys not as visible as I'd like in the distance, the return became a bit of a slog near the end. Still, it all passed fairly quickly, I really do have to say, and I cared less about what my placing might be and more on just maintaining good freestyle through to the end.

Conrad and Ron were back in time for Chris (7th overall) got out of the water, but they didn't get a shot. Dave was 19 seconds behind Chris in 8th spot. Then me, 56 seconds later, in 14th.

Adam followed, then Tim - I think they were around 17th and 19th or something. (Oh, and sometime guest Smelt Mark from Indianapolis did his Mel's Angels team proud with an 18th place finish, or something like that). Marcia - nto a Smelt, but on the I'm Not So Young team, came along a little later (she's fine - the photo makes it look like she needs help out, but she was just getting asked about something since she was race co-director). That made four out of five of the older team, and we watched excitedly for our teammates. Carrie was the next Smelt to finish, then Liz,
which completed the older team roster. Jen snuck by when we weren't looking (and Spencer dozed through a bunch!), then Ellen came in to complete our Illinois contingent.

What a great swim for all of us! It was Jen's first open water swim, and I think she'll be back at it again. Ellen is not a Smelt, but we're glad to team up with our suburban neighbours for the fun of a swim. Liz was only 30 seconds off a recent timed 5 km swim she did at UIC's pool, so that makes her an excellent model of pace and consistency. I think all of us had fun - I know I did. No, I'm not going to do swim meets next season. Don't hold your breath for that one.

;-)

Photo ops,
then while Chris and Marcia opted to go splash around in the lake some more (really, it was just wonderful for swimming in, such a good temperature!), others of us found shade. It takes a lot of effort to be as fish-belly white as I am. No joke: Tim and Adam each told me separately that the knew it was me swimming alongside them at certain points because of how pale I am. I had to laugh. I knew Tim from his red Detroit Red Wings swim cap, and Adam by his shoulder tattoo, so that's fair, I guess.

Time for awards (meanwhile, the solo swimmers were chugging away, some of them frighteningly quickly), and our younger team (Adam, Tim, Ellen, Jen, and Carrie) took 5th in the Mixed 25 and up category. Stiff competition there. The first place team had the 1st, 2nd, AND 3rd place overall finishers. Smoking fast! In the 35 and up category, though, I am proud, happy, totally chuffed to report that we are the National Champions. Liz, Marcia, Dave, Chris, and I placed fourth out of all the relay teams, and first in our age group. National Champions, and I guess that technically means a national record for us. We received out medals and badges that indicate our champion status. No, I'm not a national champion in my home country, but this still rocks. And I'm just so proud of all of us, not because it was a tough swim, but because I swam with a people whom I like to swim with and who make Smelts really rewarding for me. This was just super.

More photo ops (medals so shiny, we can check our hair!), of course,

then we all headed out. Showers for most of us at our hotel rooms, lunch at a brew pub in Noblesville, and back on the road again. Conrad drove me and Dave home; Dave and I dozed at various points.

Conrad, by the way, simply rocks. He drives several hours this weekend, gets up far earlier than usual, takes oodles of photos, cheers for us all. Ron did the same thing (and took care of Spencer). Adrian had the boys back at the hotel, which freed Liz up to swim her race. Jen's fiance Aaron came to support her (and they got in to the hotel at 1:15 AM on Saturday morning!), and Ellen's husband and boys got to the race in time to see her finish. Our spouses/partners/loved ones complete the experience for us.

That, friends, is the report from Indiana (well, I'm at home now, sitting on the balcony, contemplating a bit more red wine) - a fine event, a super result, a great memory to share with you all.

Displaced

The important thing to emphasize is that Conrad and I are fine, and that a small number of people only had very minor injuries.

This was our yesterday, post-swimming:


An electrical fire in the building - more smoke than anything else by what we experienced - happened at lunch time. Power in the building was knocked out, and people were evacuated. We grabbed some essentials before we left and got over to the Center on Halsted/Whole Foods to figure out what was what.

No power meant no one could stay in the building overnight. Temperatures in the morning hovered around freezing, but the forecast was for a COLD Sunday. Already, it was cooling off mid-afternoon, and a flurry quickly passed through.When I checked the weather online this morning, it was -19 Celsius. Whoa.

Many of our friends have checked in, and we're grateful for the offers of assistance and a place to stay. We've spent the night at Dave's place, not too far from the building. Some sushi, some wine, and we tried to keep our minds from fretting over what we might find today.
By 10, Conrad and I were drained, and it was to bed for us.

Conrad just called - he's at the unit. No smoke damage, happily, but because of ongoing problems with restoring power to the building, it may be days before we can return. He's picking up additional clothing and other things for us. An interesting weekend for us, it might be said.