This Girl Loves to Swim

This is my all time favorite picture of Alissa in the water. She had just done her flip turn and was heading back to finish her 100 m backstroke race. She knew before the jump start that I was waiting to cheer her on at the far end of the pool. She opened her eyes at just the right time to see me taking pictures. Her smile in the middle of the race captures how she feels about swimming. She LOVES it! A couple days ago she was begging us to let her go to the summer double practices, meaning one practice in the morning and another in the late afternoon every day all summer.

Today she swam 4 races. I'm not able to compare her times from today to her old times to know if she did a personal best or not. I learned from Andi's dad (past amazing swimmer) that there are 25 yard pools (which is what Alissa practices in at home), 25 meter pools, and 50 meter pools. You have to convert a 25 yard short course time to a 50 meter long course time. In a 25 yard pool you are doing extra flip turns and pushing off the wall more often than in a 50 m pool, which, of course, produces different results. I think its hard for kids that practice in short pools to adjust to swimming the long course pools. There isn't the wall there to break up the race into shorter segments. Her coaches said that they didn't do the conversions in the heat sheet correctly so we don't really know if she swam amazingly or more her usual times. But, the whole thing is exciting either way. I'm so proud of her!

I include this picture to show how cool an outdoor pool is, how far the 50 meters look, to show the hills in the background, and so that you can get your magnifying glass out to notice that it is Alissa on the block at the end of this lane.

Signing off from the Apple Capital Invitational Swim Meet in Wenatchee, Washington.