Karen Synchronized Swimming Master's Nationals (Oct 19-23)

I've been doing synchronized swimming for two years now, and this was my first national-level meet.  This was an out-of-town 3-day event, with only adults; different from our single day meets we host locally with one to two (or zero) other masters teams.  I was on a high all weekend!  We got new custom made suits and headpieces, we had worked hard preparing, and it was a girls get-away weekend for me.

Janice, Nancy, Pam, and I carpooled to Valle do Oro, AZ (just north of Tuscon) on Wednesday and went to the local YMCA pool for a stretch swim and practice.

We saw the facility for the first time on Thursday.  It was nice-- large warm up pool, deck space, warm showers we could wash our knox off in, and they reassigned one of the men's restrooms for all the women there!

It was intimidating the first day...seeing the facility for the first time, trying to figure out which way was front (what I should be seeing/looking at during various parts of my routine), figuring out the day's schedule, my adrenaline pumping, coach telling me to get in for warm-ups at by 7am(!), the water was COLD(!), finding my walls and corners when the water was foggy, adjusting my entry for a zero-depth deck (not sure I could do my back dive without the extra 12" of deck height I was used to, so I turned 180° and dove normal), and oops, practicing the wrong routine at first and not letting it funk me up!

I am proud and excited to say I swam both my tech and free solos and rocked 'em!!  My solo technical routine was a modified version of our trio tech routine to David Bowie's "Just Dance" and "Dancing in the Streets".  My free routine was to "Here Comes the Rain Again" by Annie Lennox.
Scores: 
Overall Tech Routine 59.8333 (Execution: 29.8333, Overall Impression: 30.000) 
Overall Free Routine 56.5667 (Technical Merit 28.0167--includes execution, synchronization, and difficulty; Artistic Impression 28.550--includes choreography, musical interpretation, and manner of presentation)

Now I could go back to our hotel and land drill our trios with my team mates.  We had our tech trio on Friday.  Oh yousers--we were a train wreck!  We literally ran each other over after the connecting rotation--we somehow ended up facing different directions when we whipped onto our back, so I reached out and shoved Nancy's shoulder to move her in line with me (haha I assumed *I* was doing it right).  I think nerves got to us a bit.  There is definitely a skill in staying focused after making a mistake or sudden obstacles.  As masters, we also don't have many opportunities to perform under much pressure so this was a new field of play for us.  Coach Julee about cried and told us we are NEVER wearing our goggles during a performance again!

Then we had to get our heads in gear for figures in the afternoon, and our free routine the next day.  Our figures are not complicated per se, but there are always so many things to think about in synchro and little details are quite noticed, so no matter how well you know them, you still need some luck on your side because you only get one shot.  After frantically removing my 5 screw back earrings (b/c a judge gave a prior competitor a hard time about hers being in her ears) and practically running to find a safe place to put them before my number was up, I had an amazing figures day and got 1st place in my age group.  Apparently that means I should move up to "B" figures for next time--I'm excited.
Scores: 
Overall "C" Figures 57.6714 (Ballet Leg single (1.6 dd) 5.7 & 5.7, Tower (1.9 dd) 5.4 & 5.5, Prawn (1.6 dd) 6.0 & 6.1, Barracuda (2.0 dd) 6.0 & 5.7 ) 

So we enjoyed getting our medals for figures at the awards dinner that night.  Because of the multi-day event schedule, many people do not stay all 4 days, so they do most of the awards here, and then do the final awards after the last event at the pool.  Listening to the lady tell her comedic personal story about the dawn of the sport and doing a flamingo in a 3' above ground circus pool (with instruction to "make it look deep") was fun--apparently the move was named because she was wearing a suit with a flamingo on it.  It is also interesting to learn about the different types & sizes of teams represented from around the nation.  Before bed, we land drilled again and organized our things so we could drive home after our swim the next day.

Saturday was a better day for us.  We gave Coach Julee a birthday gift (a new deck/camp chair, and a peace-offering for dissappointing her on her bday wknd) and promised we'd make it up by doing better today.  We were more focused and did well swimming our free routine to "Raining Men" which has a fun, spunky beat.  This routine was longer, so we were a little nervous for our stamina, but we also got to wear our matching glittery suits, and hair up.  We land drilled with my portable speaker probably 47 times in the adjacent park at various points in the day.  I'm not sure if it's better to watch the performance prior to ours for fun and distraction, or to look away and focus internally, but whatever we did, we managed to pull it off.  We felt so good and happy and proud and relieved when it was all done.
Scores: 
Overall Tech Routine 51.6667 (Execution: 25.6667, Overall Impression: 27.000) 
Overall Free Routine 58.3500 (Technical Merit 29.6333--includes execution, synchronization, and difficulty; Artistic Impression 28.7167--includes choreography, musical interpretation, and manner of presentation)

We split the driving duties up on the way home.  Nancy drove us into the sunset to Yuma, we stopped for gas, and found this cool dirt-lot food-truck style locale for authentic Mexican food for dinner, and then I drove the night shift home.  We were in such high spirits, we chit chatted the whole way back to San Diego.

I wonder if I'll make the trip to Nationals next year in Florida...is it worth the trip?

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P.S. It was such an intense experience--the weekend itself and the months preparing, that we were happy to NOT think about those routines for months, at all(!), following.  (Shhh, don't tell coach (*grin*).

P.S. edit in March:  Thank goodness for my detailed notes of the choreography--I was able to piece the moves together and can swim the routine again!
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