Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Day 3 ~ Pre-Day 1

We arrived at the pool just before 9am and Amanda was able to get some quality time in the big pool with just a few swimmers from Delta State and Ashland. We finished the workout with 2 sprints from the starting blocks. Since this meet is “big time” the blocks are equipped with reaction pads. These will be used to see how fast (or slow) each swimmer gets off the block. (I also learned at the coaches meeting that touchpads will be used at each end of the pool giving us 25 splits…for the non-swimming crowd reading, that is really cool).

After the swim we used the crackberry and GPS combination to locate the local the International House of Pancakes (IHOP, if you will). Our waiter was a local guy who was very upbeat and energetic. He took our orders without writing them down, promising they would be correct, even repeating them to us 2 times. Apparently he needed a 3rd repeat b/c my sausage links ended up as 2 crispy strips of bacon.

I dropped Amanda off at the hotel and went back for the coaches meeting…oh the “joy” of the coaches meeting, highlighted by a wonderful Turkey sandwich. Edinboro’s student assistant coach, Jon, scored my peanut butter cookie and chips. After all, I am on a diet.

Student-Athlete banquet tonight...

The national championship swim banquet was a site to behold.

University of Tampa dressed as bikers. Fellow Holiday Inn Select residents, University of Seattle, went with a different approach...abnormal color shorts and some rather hideous sweaters…the kind of sweater that is overpriced at the thrift store for 25 cents. Great stuff. Other teams had matching team shirts and most were just plain dressed up. Amanda and I went with plain old khaki’s and our TYR jackets.

Post pasta, salad & chicken dinner we made a quick Wal Mart supply run (razors for Amanda and skittles for myself) and returned to the hotel.

8:30am departure tomorrow.

No comments: