Val achieves personal bests

Today's swim meet was longer than yesterday.  We were there 7:30am to 2:00pm.  I officiated, so I was on my feet most of the time. I sat down when I could because my back was tightening up. When we got home and I got out of the car, I found my quads were tightening up too. That's what happens when you run just once a week, I guess. The standing on concrete all day wasn't helping, either I'm sure. On a positive note, my left arm is doing better. The setback didn't last more than a week or so.

Val did very well. She swam personal bests at today's session too. The big news is that she dropped 3.5 seconds from her 100 breaststroke!  Even though she was in heat 5 of 8, she didn't qualify for finals.  A good friend of hers won the event and made her state time, though. Go Haylee! Val cut a little time off her 50 free (32.2 to 31.86) and edged her 100 IM by about half a second. She swam "clean up" (last swimmer) in the 200 free B relay and her split was about what she swam in the 50 free.

Several of Val's 10 and under friends are qualified for the state meet which is great. The 11-12 age group times are really tough to make, though. Other than Haylee, I'm not sure her other friends are going in personal events. I think they have a free relay and a medley relay going though.

Tomorrow Val has the 100 free and 50 back. She might also be in a Medley relay. She could swim any stroke in the relay because she doesn't have a weak stroke. Breaststroke has been her strongest lately, followed by freestyle, butterfly, and then backstroke.

I don't know if I'll officiate tomorrow. Today they really didn't need me. I could have stayed in the stands. It's nice to be down on deck with Val, though. I get to talk to her after each race and sometimes give her encouragement or feedback. I try to keep the coaching to a minimum, but I couldn't help myself when she was grabbing the front of the block and leaning way back on the freestyle start. I told her she was giving everyone else a head start. I think she did a little less of that on the IM start.

We watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs tonight. It was okay as kid movies go. Ken has been watching lots of the Olympics coverage, so the rest of us have too. I'm not a huge winter Olympics fan. I prefer the summer variety . . . swimming, volleyball, gymnastics, etc. I can appreciate the dedication and heart of all the athletes, though. Amazing.