This afternoon was the first swim meet of the high school season. Jason swam in a medley relay, 200 free relay, 100 breast, and the 500 freestyle. He has NEVER swam that event before, on any of his teams (club, summer league, high school). But, he volunteered to swim it to help our team earn more points.
Jason's goals this year include swimming in as many varsity events as possible, and to earn as many district times as possible. He knew the district time for the 500 free is 6:20.00. Not having any former times in this event, he had to come up with a race strategy. His strategy was to keep pace with his teammate, Jack, for as long as possible. Jack's best time last year in this event was a 5:44. So, that is exactly what Jason did, as you can see by the picture below. This was fairly early in the race, but he hung with Jack the WHOLE time. Jack has faster, tighter flip turns so he would pull ahead coming off the wall each time, but as you can see, Jason would catch up by the time they got to the next wall. Jack only pulled ahead of Jason in the last 25 yards, and just out-touched Jason at the final wall. However, the strategy worked! Jason's unofficial time was 6:01!! (no official times because the home team still has not sent me the computer file).
He was ELATED!!! He got out of the pool (under his own power, which was impressive in its own right) and pumped his fist in the air. It took me a good two hours to bring him down from the clouds long enough to get his homework done tonight. I've never seen him so excited about swimming and so confident in his abilities. He was so proud that he not only made the district time, but with 19 seconds to spare. I'm so proud of him, too, and so pleased that he has finally realized that he has both ability and potential! The confidence he gained from just this one race is truly remarkable!
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