Russia Day 5: Six Races & A Celebration in Magical Realism

After a night of celebration and not much sleep, the second and last day of competition was a packed one. We got ready, went to breakfast, and got ready to go. I’d somehow lost my credentials badge that had all my race times, so I tracked down a hard copy schedule and wrote everything down. I had six races and only four bathing suits, so I decided to suck it up and wear the first one three times to have fresh dry (warm!) suits for the last three, at least two of which were going to be in the dark. This ended up being an excellent call - 9 times out of 10 it’s best to get the worst part out of the way anyway.

First up was the 25 meter heads up breaststroke. I like breaststroke (in pool swimming, I was a butterflyer/individual medley, the longer the better, but liked breaststroke next best. Anything but freestyle!) but heads-up breaststroke is a different animal. And just one lap is barely enough to get me going. But it was a good warm-up. Next up was the 24 freestyle about an hour later, same thing pretty much. I am not a sprinter. Then we had the 50m breaststroke. A little better, but I wanted so badly to do an underwater pull-out. I managed not to, but must have ducked my eyes under slightly at some point because I got a 5 second penalty. Oops! I still got third, and place would have been the same with or without the penalty.

I have no idea which race(s) these are from because I wore the same suit/cap for each. (The only flaw in my plan!)

I caught the end of Z’s breaststroke race (his first one of the day) - he looked super sloppy, really slow, and did a huge underwater pull-out. Disqualified! I had a bit of a break, we ran to grab lunch, and then the 50 freestyle. I don’t know how it happened but I got 2nd place. I don’t think there are any photos of the race, but my time was surprisingly decent, considering no dive start, no flipturn, and um, zero degree water.

This might be a picture of the 50 free, or possibly from the day before.

Then it was time for the 200. I was nervous to do this one, as I thought it would be more of a race than the 450 and the 200 free was literally my least favorite event all through age group swimming. I was swimming with Mo and Luisa and Luisa was really nervous so coaching her through it helped to calm me down. We went in, got started and the race went by really quickly. Mo was ahead of me, but I felt smooth and went as fast as I was able.

)

We finished a couple lengths ahead of Luisa, so took the time for some photo ops. (I like how we coordinated, me in black flag cap, white suit, and Mo in black suit, white American flag hat. Good and evil…me being the evil.)

Mo got out after photos (it was cold and DARK) but I stayed in as a show of support for Luisa and kept myself warm going crazy cheering her on. She is new to swimming but an amazing athlete (Brazilian national caliber kickboxer, icehockey, etc) and I’m so proud to call her my friend. I am continually surprised and astounded by the amazing friends I have made through this crazy sport.

After the 200 we had just enough time to get dried off and get ready for RELAYS!!! I was ridiculously proud to be part of the USA relay - I didn’t think this would happen as you only need to have 1 female and Mo is faster than me, but since I was in the top 4 fastest Americans I was in. So proud. I was actually most nervous for this as I was starting off the relay and didn’t want to let the team down. Plus somehow I was colder than I’d been all day. But we hung out in the holding tent, and then it was time to go:

I went first, trying so hard to keep up with the huge men next to me. Not a sprinter but I was able to hold my own and not lose ground for the team. Then Brad, then Cristian, and then Mo - everything was over in a flash. We posed for photos and I was FREEZING. (Probably pretty obvious from the photo.)

After the relays wrapped we ran back to the room, got showered dressed in a flash and headed to the gala. Dinner was random, but Mo and I (and Sabine) were all wearing pretty much the same dress and we started drinking vodka shots (we are definitely the bad girls of winterswimming. Z came over as we were doing our 2nd shot with Talya, Baby Jacob, and the gang, and we pretty much just froze him out. He told me congratulations and told Mo she looked lovely. SCREW YOU TOO!) Then the awards started…we had to run up to the podium a bunch but each time was thrilling. Here I am in all my questionable podium glory.

Again, different races but not sure which photos go to which. I should have kept the medals on instead of taking off each time, but in the end I swam 7 events and got 5 medals, 2 Bronze, 3 Silver.

The podium photos from the 200 are my favorite. I know how much finishing that race and earning a medal meant to L. I love her, and what fun to be up with my two favorite girls.

And then the relay…yaaay!

The whole night was so much fun, but it was just getting started!

Last updated December 30, 2014