“My First Competitive Relay”
A micro memoir by Garrett Field (9).
I arrive, the wind billowing cold gusts at me as I exit my mom’s car at the “Silver Level” club swim meet. I grab my gear and head towards the parking lot with my mom. As I approach, I see my coaches setting up tents with my teammates. I joined in setting up the windbreakers, greatly helping us with the cold wind. Then as we finish, I sit down on the floor and wait for warm-ups to begin. This would be my first competitive relay in a meet.
I was at this meet because of what happened a few weeks before. I was doing freestyle sprints at swim practice. I was keeping ahead of the interval and enjoying the swimming as well.
“Hey Garrett, would it be alright if Coach Igor times you?” Coach Jason asked me.
“Sure,” I said, curious about what time I would get. So I hopped out of the pool and was asked to enter a different lane. I then was asked to do a 50 sprint off the block. I get ready and prepare to launch off the block.
Coach Igor counts me down and finally says “Go!”
I dive into the water and swim as fast as I can, hoping not to lose time. As I get to the wall, I take a breath…flip, and push off as hard as I can, trying to be as efficient as possible. Then knowing I’m on the last stretch, I swim as fast as possible hoping to reach the wall at any second.
Proud, I got out of the pool. I walked over to Coach Jason and told him excitedly, “ I got a time of 28.35 seconds.”
“Great. With that time, would you be interested in swimming in a silver meet in a couple of weeks?” he said
Intrigued, I said, “Sure, but let me talk with my parents about it.” This would be my first relay in a competitive meet. I felt excited and was looking forward to it. Now, I was finally here waiting for warm-ups to begin. As I waited I became better friends with my teammates learning a couple of their names in the process. After this, my team and I were told to get to warm-ups so we would be ready for our events.
We all went to the pool. It was an indoor pool so once we entered the building we were hit with a wall of warmth which was a pleasant change from the cold environment we had just been in. As we entered the water we were greeted with another surprise. The water was the perfect temperature, allowing us to get right to warm-ups starting with a few hundred choice swim and IM along with dive practice. Then warmed up I went to get our event times and waited for the fun to begin. My event was close to the beginning. I was all warmed up and I knew who I was doing it with. The only thing that I needed to do was wait. As I waited I got more and more nervous until it was finally our time to swim. My teammates and I approached the block and we got into our positions for the relay. As we did so I nervously asked “So we’ll be doing a relay dive?”
“Yea.” One of them said
“Got it, just clarifying,” I said
As I asked a voice sounded on the speakers “Event 2, Boys 200 Medley”
Hearing this my first teammate got into the water and the voice then sounded again saying “Take your mark… Buuuuuuuuuur.”
The buzzer sounded and my teammate launched into the water with great force off of the wall speeding through the water on their back. My second teammate then got onto the block and prepared for when my first teammate got back to the wall. As my first teammate got back my second propelled off the block and into the pool swimming with all their might. Finally, it was my third teammate's turn then mine. They climbed onto the block and prepared to dive in. When they did the only thought going through my mind was “It’s your turn now so don’t mess up.”
As I thought this I climbed onto the block mind racing only watching as my teammate approached the wall. Thinking it was a good time to go I launched into the water almost hitting my teammate. Remembering it was a relay I kept going, pushing as hard as I could, taking all the steps necessary to decrease my time. Finally, when I reached the starting wall I got out of the pool and my team told me “We were probably disqualified because you left too early.”
Hearing this and headed over to our coach to know if that was true. I was discouraged that I had let myself and my teammates down, but thinking back on it I believe that it was a good learning experience helping me with future events and teaching me timing is important and it is better to go a bit late than too early.