Written by Bethany Watson (Year 6A Student)
Today is the big day! Today is my first swimming meet of the year for the YCIS Swim Squad! This is how my day unfolded…
I woke up at five o’clock, because Ginger (my Golden Retriever) came up the stairs and jumped on my bed.
So I got out of bed half awake, half asleep and called Ginger to come. I led her downstairs. I looked around sleepily, and saw my dad. When he said it’s the swimming meet TODAY, I scrambled up and started to pack everything…I had to triple check that we HAD everything…and then we set off. For swimming meets, we always have to set off very early…and this was highlighted by the fact that it as still dark outside!
Once we arrived, we had to go straight to the warm up pool. I tried as hard as I could because I knew today would be pretty hard to get into the top three. Not long after our warm up, it was my turn to do my first race. Thankfully it was a relay, meaning that there were four of us which helped bring my nerves down. In our team we had Tony who was first to go, Wendy second, then Aria and finally, I went last. The race seemed to go very fast, and I remember being on the block waiting for my turn to dive as far as I could…GO! I dived in, rushing to get up to the surface, kicking hard, making lots of white splashes making it look like snowflakes dropping in the water and melting. When I was about to reach the wall… BAM! I tumbled, looking up at the water, then I quickly turned onto my front, using the butterfly kick. I gasped for air as soon as I reached to the top. I moved my arms as fast as I could, plunk splash, plunk splash. Nearly there as I thought to myself. HIT! I touched the wall. When I scrambled up out of the swimming pool, Coach Craig gave me a high-five and said well done. I smiled and walked downstairs.
Throughout the day, there were three other races which I was involved in. The 50metre freestyle was a little disappointing as I was 2 seconds outside my personal best. But I made up for it with the next race which was the 50m Butterfly. This is the hardest of the strokes (in my opinion), and Coach Craig wanted me to get under the 1minute mark. For the first few pulls I kept my head down trying not to breathe. But on my way back I was breathing franticly every pull. I smacked the wall as hard as I could. When I climbed out of the pool, I felt warm again. I saw Coach Craig and asked him if I got under 1 minute. Then he said that my time was…57 seconds. On the outside I just said yes! But on the inside my heart was singing joyfully, and felt like I had just won the Olympics!
As with all swimming meets there is often quite a lot of waiting time, and it is quite difficult keeping yourself occupied. However, after about a 2-hour wait, it was time for my favourite race – 50m Breaststroke. It was a tough race, but I managed to knock a second off my personal best, which made it all worth while.
The day before this I felt so nervous and I didn’t want to do it, but I learnt my lesson: if you don’t try, how do you know if you can do it or not. Today turned out to be the best day of my weekend! Now looking forward to just one thing…CAMP… BRING IT ON, I’M READY TO TRY ANYTHING!!!