Stanford Redoux

Well, I completed my sweep of placing exactly how I did at the 2006 Worlds Championships at Stanford with a second place finish in the open water swim. The winner isn't someone that swam any of the pool events. She must have only signed up for the open water. I haven't seen the times yet, so I'm not sure how far ahead of me she was. I gotta confess, I'm a little disappointed with another second place finish. My goal for this meet was to win *something*. I wasn't particulary choosy about which event I wanted to win, just at least one. I know it sounds a little odd to be disappointed with second place at the World Championships, but my competitive spirit wanted a first place finish. If I had swum good times, I might be happier with my placings, but since my times weren't all the great, either, I'm disappointed. Oh well.
We've had a great trip so far, seen some really cool things, had some good adventures (including almost getting a $300 speeding ticket today...thankfully the cop was in a good mood and took pity on the foreigner and only gave me a "caution"), so I really can't complain. And, we're off to Sydney tomorrow morning! Harbour Bridge here I come!

The girl on the right in the above picture is Alicia from San Francisco. We got to know each other this week by swimming mostly the same events. We also ran into her twice outside the competition. This photo was taken about 5 minutes before hopping in to the slightly cold water. And for those that know me and water temperature, if I thought it was cold, it was pretty dang cold. But, once the race started, the water temp felt great.



I'm somewhere in this mass of swimmers. Perhaps the second one since that's where I finished up. But, I think there were 2 girls ahead of me at the start, one may have been in the younger age group, so I'd guess I'm the third one in this photo. Who really knows.

400 Free

Amazingly, I didn't take any pictures today. So here are a couple from previous days.

We drove to Fremantle this morning to go back to the markets (Mom is looking for a couple items for some friends of hers) but when we walked up, the doors were closed. Turns out, they're only open on Fridays and weekends. Whoops!! Guess I should have checked that out online before driving over there. It's a good thing it's only about 20 minutes away. Mom got a pastry (a daily treat for her) and then we headed back to Perth. We attempted to shop a little in downtown Perth but gave up due to lack of parking. We ended up just eating lunch at the hotel and then watching "National Treasure" on TV before heading to the pool.

The 400 free was today. I swam okay and got second place. The girl that won wasn't in my heat, so we weren't able to race. I was ahead of her split at the 300 by a whole second, but she must have an amazing finishing kick because she ended up beating me by .33 one-hundredths. This is the same girl that came from behind the last 100 of the 800 to win, too. Oh well.

Tomorrow is the open water swim. It's 3K...1.5K down the Swan River and then back. Should be fun!

Also, a random thought: we just returned from dinner. Kangaroo was listed on one of the restuarant menus that we glanced at while walking past. After petting one yesterday, I could never eat it. They just seem too gentle and sweet. I don't have that same "conviction" about cows, chicken, pigs, etc. But there's just something about the kangaroo that makes them special to me now and I can't imagine eating one.


Standing behind the blocks before the 200 free. That's me in the black suit (it's actually blue but apparently it looks black when wet) and the black cap, the fourth swimmer in from the left.

Shopping, Swimming, Sight Seeing

Yesterday, we drove down to Fremantle in the morning to do some more shopping in the markets. There were lots of great deals to be had! Some items were very typically Australian, and other items were imported from places like India and China. One of the neatest vendors we found sells items made from Jarrah trees, which are quite common in Western Australia. It's a dark, almost redish wood, very beautiful. Items at the markets are about 3x less expensive than in traditional stores. Being the shoppers that we are, we loved it!!

In the afternoon, it was back to the hotel for a lunch of egg salad sandwiches and an apple. My mom first began making me egg salad sandwiches before swim meets when I was 7 years old! The tradition continues! Despite not having Durkees, or salt and pepper, the salad turned out great. Maybe the eggs came from saltier chickens?

I swam the 200 free yesterday afternoon. Apparently the official competition website isn't doing a very good job of posting results (not sure why...seems like that would be an important feature of the website?). I had a pretty good swim...my time was just 1.4 seconds slower than at Stanford two years ago. I took third place. So far, I've placed exactly the same as I did at Stanford.

After the meet, we walked through Kings Park. It's a huge park built on some bluffs that overlook the Swan River, another river with a native name that I can't remember right now, and the city of Perth. It was established in the early 1900s by settlers of Perth who wanted to preserve the early "feel" of Perth and Western Australia.

After Kings Park, we had dinner at the Old Swan Brewery, located on the Swan River. We both had pork cutlets with pineapple salsa. Yummy! We saved room for dessert...which did not disappoint. The chef gets total style points for these creations. The pink stuff on the creme brulee is like cotton candy and that's toffee sitting on top of the strawberries. I can't remember the last time I photographed my dessert!

(Sorry about the blurriness...I'm not very good at holding the camera super still while on the night setting.)

Fremantle

Yesterday, I swam the 200 back in the morning. This is the indoor pool. The guys and girls alternate days in the indoor and outdoor competition pools. My 200 free and 400 free will be outside. I was a little worried about how I'd swim yesterday, given the late hour of my 800 free, my lack of warmdown afterwards, and the fact that restaurants in Perth don't seem to be open past 9 pm. After trying unsuccessfully for about an hour to find a place to eat after the 800, we finally gave up and made oatmeal and peanut butter at the hotel. It's good thing that's one of my favorite meals! But, I seem to have recovered okay and swam well yesterday morning. I went about the same time as I did at Worlds two years ago at Stanford (only .08 seconds slower) and got 4th place. I'm happy with that swim!

After swimming, we were starving! We had passed a little restaurant called "Woodpecker Pizza" on the way to the pool several times, so we decided to try it for lunch. It was yummy!! We split a shrimp, canadian bacon, and mushroom pizza. Man it tasted good! We both really liked the decor of the restaurant, too. Those are wine bottles hanging on the far wall in the picture. Every thing I've read says that it's not necessary to tip the servers, but it feels so weird. I always feel like we're cheating them out of something.

After lunch, we headed to Fremantle. It's about 20km south of Perth. Fremantle has quite a history of prisons. Most of the town and infrastructure was built by prisoners fresh off the convict ships from England. We toured the Fremantle Prison, which was in use from the 1850s until 1991. One of the most shocking aspects of the prison is that they used a "bucket system" for toilets...even in 1991. The prison guards even learned not to walk down the center of the main cell block or they'd end up with human waste dumped all over them from the upper cells.

Prisoners must have been shorter back in the 1850s!

After the tour, we did some shopping in the Fremantle Markets. If you've ever seen "The Amazing Race", the markets are somewhat like some of the markets they've been to on the show. Lots of little stalls, with vendors selling everything from jewelry to clothes to Aboriginal items to photos to boomerangs to food. We didn't have enough time to browse through everything we wanted to yesterday, so we're going back there this morning before I swim the 200 free in the afternoon.

We concluded the day with a fabulous dinner. I had a fillet, which is apparently pronounced "fill-it" here and Mom had duck breast. We also enjoyed a bottle of wine from New Zealand. Overall, it was a great day!

Australia Bound

I leave Tuesday for Australia!!! My mom and I will be there for about two weeks. I'm competing in the Masters Swimming World Championships for five days. I'm swimming the 200 free, 400 free, 800 free, 200 back and a 3K open water swim. We'll be sight seeing and having adventures the rest of the time. I'll try to post pictures/updates frequently. I'm not looking forward to the 14 hour flight from LA to Sydney and THEN a 5 hour flight from Sydney to Perth, but hopefully we'll be able to sleep a lot of the time. Down Under here I come!!

World Record Surprise

Yesterday, I drove to Columbia, MO with a couple of friends to watch a USA Swimming meet featuring 19 Olympians. I thought it'd be fun to see some fast swimming by great athletes. Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Aaron Peirsol, Katie Hoff, etc.

The surprise of the evening came in the 200 fly, when un-shaved, un-tapered, and goatee-sporting Michael Phelps broke the World Record. He was so shocked when he looked at the scoreboard and saw his time. Judging from his reaction, he totally did not expect to swim that fast. It was so exciting to watch! And so unexpected!

Seeing Michael swim in person is totally different than watching him on TV. The efficiency and beauty of his stroke don't really come through on TV. During his fly, his chin just rests on top of the water and stays completely still despite the constant motion of his arms and legs. It truly looks effortless.

Watching fast swimming always makes me slighly nostalgic. A couple of the competitors yesterday are my age. It made me wonder, what if I'd stayed in shape? How fast would I be swimming now? Did I miss out on something great by retiring after college? I always decide that I made the right decision. I still love to swim, but I also love having time to experience other life adventures.

But, it was fun to be back in that world for a day, if only as a spectator.