Districts

Julia was up before the sun - literally - this morning, so excited was she for the YMCA Districts meet.  In fact, even though I got up at the miserable hour of 6am (on a Saturday! - the things we do for our children...), I found a chipper Julia seated at the dining room table, eating breakfast in her team bathing suit.

This morning's meet held all events for girls in the 9-10 age group.  Julia was one of only 4 girls from our YMCA branch who qualified in this age group, which also made her one essential leg in both relay groups.  In addition to the relays, she swam in the individual 50 yard butterfly, her favorite (and best) stroke.

First off, let me start out by saying that our team was unique in having only four swimmers.  Most of the other YMCA teams had swarms of (really, really fast) swimmers who had qualified for Districts.  So many that one team actually had 5 relay teams in one event.  In addition, the fact that these other teams had so many solid swimmers allowed them to choose the cream of the crop for their "A" relay.  Our team had only one relay, which was automatically our "A" relay, and they were swimming against some really powerful combinations of girls.  So the fact that they didn't place dead last is really pretty remarkable, and furthermore, they wound up placing right in the middle of the overall pack.  Something to be very proud of!

Madeleine felt differently.  The queen of unfiltered criticism was not impressed.  As we watched the medley relay, and watched Julia swim her butterfly leg, close to the pack but not passing anyone, Madeleine declared, "Julia is NOT doing her best."  No matter that Julia actually tied her PR in 50 yard butterfly during that relay.  She didn't win, so in Madeleine's mind she was a loser.

Speaking of winning, Julia's next event was the butterfly, and she was in Heat 1 out of 7.  Typically, the heats go from slowest seed times to fastest.  Julia had the second-to-slowest seed time of all the swimmers.  However, she managed to rise to victory in a number of ways.  #1, she won her heat, securing herself a spot that was NOT second-to-last, #2, she wound up placing 28th out of 38 swimmers, so was in fact 10th-to-last, and #3, she swam a new PR of 44.05 seconds.  She, and her parents, were pleased.  In fact, Julia seemed not to even notice that there were six other heats after her own.

JULIA: Mommy, I won in butterfly!
ME: I saw you win your heat!

Later on, at home

ME: I'm so proud of your swimming today.
JULIA: (beaming) I just can't believe that I came FIRST in butterfly!

Don't worry, Madeleine was sure to spoil the sense of pride.

MADELEINE: Well Julia?  In the one *I* was watching, you came in LAST.
ME: Well, that was in the relay, and she didn't come in last, because there was another swimmer on her team after her, and they came in 5th in their heat.
MADELEINE: Yeah but Mama?  When Julia was swimming, I saw that she was in LAST place.

Madeleine is always good for a morale boost.

Julia's final event was the freestyle relay, and she managed to get her team from last place in their heat to second-to-last, catching and passing a girl in the next lane.  So all in all, the meet was a success and we are proud of our little swimmer!  Even if Madeleine is not.

One thing I am not proud of, however: Julia proved, yet again, that she is not to be trusted taking her shower and changing by herself.  She left her team bathing suit at the Districts pool.  At least she waited until the meet season was over with to lose the one item she actually really kind of needs to swim with the team.

Congrats on making so much improvement this season, Jules!