Where water meets more water...

Saturday was the annual Fisher Shield Swimming Carnival, the very first event in a year long sports competition between the college's here at James Cook. As an ex-swimmer I signed up for a number of events and as a fresher, I was expected to. I was signed up for the 100meter backstroke and 100meter freestyle, the 50meter freestyle and butterfly and then the men's Medley and then the men's Freestyle relays. I woke up Saturday to rain. After some stretching I made my way across campus to the pool to begin warming up. The first event I swam was the 100meter backstroke, first heat out of two. The Saint's (what my college is called) were placed in lane 3 for the day and I was really having some fun flashbacks to my swimming days: center lane, backstroke. This happiness had successfully drained out of me, however, by about lap one and a half out of four. I just remember thinking "you are a fatty, you are a fatty, why did you stop swimming you chub." My self-esteem is fine, I promise, it just seems I am not in topnotch swimming shape like I once was. Luck have it, I finished my heat a convincing second to some kid in lane 6 (if you have ever watched me swim, you know how much I hate losing to people I can't keep tabs on, especially those in lanes 1 and 6 - jerks).

Anyways, I was way out of breath and was like "how am I going to possibly swim the 100meter freestyle. So, because of my wheezing, I ended up trading with some kid; he would do the freestyle if I did the breaststroke. Curses. I may have raced the 100meter breaststroke twice in my life...third time is a charm? Figures the event was right after the backstroke so wheezing Shane barely got a chance to catch his "breath" before he was diving right back into lane 3. Freaking Michael Phelps was in Lane 1, but once again, I got second in my heat. I was feeling so sick after all of this swimming I went straight to the showers and just stood under cold water for like 5 minutes. Once I stopped shaking, had drank some water, I went back out to the team. We were doing really well. Us guys had finished in the top three in each of the 100meter events, the girls were holding their own. As for the 50meters, I was feeling up to it, but there were a few other guys who stepped up who hadn't swam in the 100s. I was actually feeling like I could have really done it, but was happy to save myself for the relays. It was still raining.

I started the Saint's men's relay team with the backstroke. We ended up winning the race by over a half a lap. It was a similar story for the freestyle relay. I started us off and we as a team won by half a lap. All-in-all, the guy Saints did pretty freaking awesome. As a college, we are currently in a draw for first between University Hall with 194 points. Regardless, finishing first or second is a huge achievement as St. Paul's last year was last. Yeah Saint's freshers, yeah.