A Good Run

The Girl woke up Friday feeling yucky.  Her throat was scratchy and her sinuses felt congested, but she got up and went to practice anyway, as their County Swim Finals was Saturday morning.

Saturday she got up...in a stupor, but we thought it was because it was early on a Saturday.  But she wasn't feeling well then either.  Before we left I took her temperature and it was normal.  But as the meet progressed, I could tell she was feeling worse and worse.

She swam the Medley relay with her team and they set a new country record.  Then the 100 free before she had a long break to wait until her 200 IM.  In that break she was snuggled under two blankets and laying in the sunshine--it was already warm by then--and she was still shivering.  So I knew she was sick.

Finally the IM got called to the bullpen and she went, looking a bit drunk to be honest.  She sat as still as she could, reserving every bit of energy she had for the pool.  As the starter called them to the blocks and to take their marks, she looked like she was going to fall off the blocks because she was so unbalanced.  But the gun went off and she dove in.

She swam one of the fastest IMs I've ever seen her swim.  Her stoke count is still significant slower than the other swimmer, but her efficiency in the water was spectacular.  Her breaststroke especially was beautiful to watch.  The closer competitor nearly pulled ahead of her during the fly, but The Girl came back and overtook her in the back, and she never let up.  she even put some distance on the girl in the breaststroke.

The Girl's goal this summer was to beat the County record in the IM.  It was a 2:32.78  and just from watching a the end of the pool, I thought she was on record pace.  She was pouring it on.

As she plowed into the wall at the end, I could tell that she was exhausted.  I sent two of her Medley teammates to the blocks to help her out of the pool.  She was spent and couldn't even get herself out of the water.  She needed help walking back to her coaches.  She sat with them for a could of events while she tried to gather her strength.

With a little assistance she came back to the tent area and after talking with her coach, she decided that she'd scratch the 100 breaststroke and they would put someone else in her place for the free relay at the end of the meet, so she could go home and rest. 

We brought her home and checker her temp again, and it was 101º.  She was pale and looked like she'd been hit by a truck.  She didn't even quibble about going to bed.  In fact, I had to ask her to please put on dry clothes first or she'd have fallen into bed in her suit.

She slept all day.  It was just what she needed.  She had a little bit where she though she was going to throw up and sat at the rim of the toilet, but never got much up.  Then she went back to bed.

In the evening we got a text that she missed the IM record by 2/10th of a second.  I was bummed for her, but she knew she couldn't have done any more in the condition she was in that day, and it was valiant effort.  I guess she couldn't be disappointed in her goals when she left everything she had in the pool.  And if this was her last meet, I guess that isn't a bad way to go.