USMS Las Vegas LCM Swim Meet Recap
The Las Vegas swim meet and weekend trip was fantastic. Karen and I had a blast at this ultra-quick long course meet at the Desert Breeze Park pool in Sin City. We left early and made it up there in under four hours, passing more Highway Patrol cars that either of us had EVER seen on that highway. They were out in droves.
We arrived at the pool early, found a cozy little spot on the bleachers, and were soon joined by Chad Durieux, the Rose Bowl Aquatics coach, who just so happened to be celebrating a birthday that day (Happy Birthday, Chad!). I was also stoked to see Marc Mohr, from my team, CVMM, who is always so supportive and who rocked his swims.
The meet got underway at around 1:25 pm and was over just a little after 3:40 pm. It went QUICKLY, as there were only around 50 swimmers registered, with most events having 2-3 heats (besides the 50s, where we got up to 4-5).
We love Bosc pears
Since I was swimming five events, there was not much rest in between my swims and it seemed that I spent much of those two hours in the warm-down pool, unwinding from the previous swim and waiting for my next one to begin (barely even time to dry off most of the time).
The fast-paced meet was a challenge, but was good experience and fun to sneak in five long course events, four of which I hadn't swam at a Masters LC meet yet. The day began with the 400 Freestyle and I felt strong throughout the swim, finishing in a 5:14.03. I split: 1:15.32, 1:19.72, 1:20.38, 1:19.39. I really like this event and now that I've swam it once, I'm looking forward to giving it another go. Chad and I had a little challenge going down before the 400; and he squeaked me out, swimming in the heat before mine, coming in with a 5:13.83. Next time, Chad... next time! =)
From there, I had the 100 Free (ok time, but sort of sluggish, at 1:08.51); 200 Free (we won't discuss this one - ha ha. Not to make excuses, but I was still huffing & puffing from my 100 Free and my time was pretty close to my 200 split in the 400 - eek); 50 Free and then rounding it out with 100 Breaststroke (which is totally a learning experience for me and ended up being pretty fun & an ok time at 1:36.34).
My partner-in-crime, Karen, had excellent swims and bettered her times by a lot (10 seconds in the 400 - woo hoo). She was generous enough to snap photos of me throughout the meet (most of which you see on this blog are courtesy of K); and we really had a great time at our acceleratedly swift meet.
Afterwards we headed over to the Cancun Resort, where she had booked a night and checked into our cool little villa that overlooked this pool (below), complete with water slides. What a place! I highly recommend Cancun if you don't mind being away from the Strip and just want to relax, enjoy the amenities of a full kitchen/villa setting, and play in their water park.
We found a delicious little vegan restaurant for dinner and were then able to appreciate the warm summer Vegas night on our balcony for a bit. We slept in on Sunday morning (yay!) and then headed back to Southern California so I could celebrate Steve's Father's Day celebration with the kiddos. It was a fantastic weekend and I'm really glad that I was able to go, clear my head and heart of some of the difficult losses last week, and appreciate life.
Monday, June 21, 2010 at 10:28AM
Reader Comments (6)
Nice splits on that 400!
Sounds like a fun, if not a little too short, meet! I'm stoked to hear Marc was out there, I haven't seen that dude in a long time. Don't worry about losing to Chad... he gets me all the time... and he's so nice about it so you can't even get mad at him :)
Yay Jinxi :)! Looks like a great Vegas trip! Thanks to Karen for the super rad photos!
Glad you had so much fun. You deserve a little down time away from your desk and work. Love you lots.
Nice job Jinxi - workout meet most definitely!
Its going to be nice for you to get to train in a LC pool going forward!
See you soon.
Ahelee
Great job...ooo that one w chad was soooo close hehe. what abeautiful place to stay and relax after some awesome swimming. karen took some great shots!!! glad you had a great weekend and got to deal with everything you have had to go through. love ya lots xoxo