I know that it's been a while since I've written… To be frank I've been rather avoiding it. (I have a different post that is now two months late…)
So I bring you this week-old news: after a 3-day jaunt in Bucharest with Eleanor, I got back and immediately packed my bags for a much closer destination: Chianciano, a small town in Tuscany, where the swimming nationals were being held.
The day that we got there (Friday) I didn't have any races, so I stayed at the hotel and hung out.
The next day I had races in the afternoon, so I spent the morning with my swim buddies, and we hung out in the (chilly) pool on the hotel roof. In the afternoon, the swimmers who were doing relays and IM had to show up at the pool after lunch (at the hotel). The swimmers who had to do IM drove to the pool while everybody else walked. When we got to the pool it was one of the most confusing things you have ever seen; there was nobody around and, of course, the changing rooms were sort of split up. Usually you will have some changing stalls, an open area with lockers and benches, a toilet, some showers, and a hair drying station. Instead, they had the changing stalls and lockers in one area, and another area for benches and the hair drying station. If you wanted to shower or go to the bathroom, you had to go downstairs. The building was situated on a bit of a hill, so when you went downstairs, you could go through a corridor and either outside or onto the pool deck. There was only one door onto the pool deck (at least only one if you didn't want to go outside). This was very important, as some moron came up with the bright idea to have the corridor be the calling area. Meaning the athletes coming to be called and the athletes going to swim all had to use the same door. It was a disaster.
The pool management had also decided to string up seven lanes in a five-lane pool. They were changing it to five lanes as we were warming up. Another thing that wasn't taken into account was water displacement. After 150 people got into the pool, there wasn't much water left in it; they had us get out and warm up with no more than 10 people per lane. (The pool deck still got flooded.)
The next brilliant decision the organisers made was to have all the races of an age group in a row. That meant that I had to do my IM, free relay and medley relay all in a row, I probably would have done a lot better if they had given me a little bit more of a break: I mean, talk about giving an advantage to the people who only had one race…!
Apart from the poor organisation, the meet went fairly well. The way it worked, you could sign up for two 50-meter events (provided you had swum them during the year), an IM, and two relays, which is exactly what I did.
On the IM, I was really pleased about my butterfly and backstroke, because they felt really smooth. My breaststroke goal was simple: not to lose what little lead I might have; my freestyle, while not my best work ever, was okay.
The freestyle relay went well. It was Elena, Samuele, Matteo, and me. We did really well and placed third (after, if I understood correctly, another faster team was disqualified for an illegal start).
On the medley relay we never stood a chance… I was the youngest swimmer in the heat, apart from my teammates, who were all swimming up a year. In other words we were the youngest team, and we wouldn't even have been swimming in that age group if it weren't for me. But my technique for the backstroke was good (even if I did hit my wrist really hard against the wall). That relay was Elena, Alessandro Marccuci, Lorenzo Rancini and me.
On Sunday we had all of the 50-meter races in (thank goodness) the outdoor pool, which was much better set up for this kind of meet. In the morning, they were racing backstroke and breaststroke; butterfly and freestyle were in the afternoon.
I was racing backstroke and butterfly (which happened to be the only two strokes that I raced during the year). I came in 8th of about 16 on backstroke, nothing I'm too proud of. It is incredibly hard to transfer from an indoor 16-meter pool to an outdoor 50-meter one. I lost all points of reference, so I was continually bumping against the lane lines.
However, I came in second on my butterfly, and I did okay on it (it wasn't my best work, but nor was it my worst).
Of course I can tell you all about what happened in events, but really the best part was spending time with my team.
Ciao,
Florence
So I bring you this week-old news: after a 3-day jaunt in Bucharest with Eleanor, I got back and immediately packed my bags for a much closer destination: Chianciano, a small town in Tuscany, where the swimming nationals were being held.
The day that we got there (Friday) I didn't have any races, so I stayed at the hotel and hung out.
The next day I had races in the afternoon, so I spent the morning with my swim buddies, and we hung out in the (chilly) pool on the hotel roof. In the afternoon, the swimmers who were doing relays and IM had to show up at the pool after lunch (at the hotel). The swimmers who had to do IM drove to the pool while everybody else walked. When we got to the pool it was one of the most confusing things you have ever seen; there was nobody around and, of course, the changing rooms were sort of split up. Usually you will have some changing stalls, an open area with lockers and benches, a toilet, some showers, and a hair drying station. Instead, they had the changing stalls and lockers in one area, and another area for benches and the hair drying station. If you wanted to shower or go to the bathroom, you had to go downstairs. The building was situated on a bit of a hill, so when you went downstairs, you could go through a corridor and either outside or onto the pool deck. There was only one door onto the pool deck (at least only one if you didn't want to go outside). This was very important, as some moron came up with the bright idea to have the corridor be the calling area. Meaning the athletes coming to be called and the athletes going to swim all had to use the same door. It was a disaster.
The pool management had also decided to string up seven lanes in a five-lane pool. They were changing it to five lanes as we were warming up. Another thing that wasn't taken into account was water displacement. After 150 people got into the pool, there wasn't much water left in it; they had us get out and warm up with no more than 10 people per lane. (The pool deck still got flooded.)
The next brilliant decision the organisers made was to have all the races of an age group in a row. That meant that I had to do my IM, free relay and medley relay all in a row, I probably would have done a lot better if they had given me a little bit more of a break: I mean, talk about giving an advantage to the people who only had one race…!
Apart from the poor organisation, the meet went fairly well. The way it worked, you could sign up for two 50-meter events (provided you had swum them during the year), an IM, and two relays, which is exactly what I did.
On the IM, I was really pleased about my butterfly and backstroke, because they felt really smooth. My breaststroke goal was simple: not to lose what little lead I might have; my freestyle, while not my best work ever, was okay.
The freestyle relay went well. It was Elena, Samuele, Matteo, and me. We did really well and placed third (after, if I understood correctly, another faster team was disqualified for an illegal start).
On the medley relay we never stood a chance… I was the youngest swimmer in the heat, apart from my teammates, who were all swimming up a year. In other words we were the youngest team, and we wouldn't even have been swimming in that age group if it weren't for me. But my technique for the backstroke was good (even if I did hit my wrist really hard against the wall). That relay was Elena, Alessandro Marccuci, Lorenzo Rancini and me.
On Sunday we had all of the 50-meter races in (thank goodness) the outdoor pool, which was much better set up for this kind of meet. In the morning, they were racing backstroke and breaststroke; butterfly and freestyle were in the afternoon.
I was racing backstroke and butterfly (which happened to be the only two strokes that I raced during the year). I came in 8th of about 16 on backstroke, nothing I'm too proud of. It is incredibly hard to transfer from an indoor 16-meter pool to an outdoor 50-meter one. I lost all points of reference, so I was continually bumping against the lane lines.
However, I came in second on my butterfly, and I did okay on it (it wasn't my best work, but nor was it my worst).
Of course I can tell you all about what happened in events, but really the best part was spending time with my team.
Ciao,
Florence
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| This COULD be me getting a second place medal for butterfly, but I'm not entirely sure. The snarky hired photographer wouldn't let anyone near enough for a good photo. |
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| The freestyle relay |
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| Getting medals for the free relay |
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