SPMA Pierce College Turkey Shoot meet was today

Above is the Pierce College pool shot at 8:15 AM this morning. Due to time constraints I was only able to swim two events, the 800 SCM, the 50 SCM and as far as my goals and targets, I exceeded expectations. (1st and 3rd, baby!)

Dara Torres swam a 24.1 today for the 50 scm at the 2007 FINA World Cup series, and my time today was in the 20's too. That is all I will say. As for my 800 scm, I posted a 11:35.41.

By the way, I wore Speedo Fastskin leggings for the 800 scm and it was a really dumb idea! Phelps, Crocker, or Hansen, can get away with it since they are never in the water for more than 180 seconds. By the third hundred I felt like I was wearing a drag suit. I immediately changed into my TYR Aquashift brief for the next race and set a personal best in the 50 SCM. A much nicer experience to say the least. (These opinions are mine, not SCAQ, and I don't get any compensation from TYR for saying that.)

Another important detail, since it is the holidays, I found an amazing charity that I am really enthusiastic about. I am going to write more about it later in the week. It's called Senior Smiles.

I forgot to mention...

At the Southwest Masters meet at Pierce college I was beaten by a guy in the 70-74 age group by nearly 2 seconds. He swam a 58 in the lane next to me and I swam a 1:00.33. I didn't feel bad about it because his name was Jeff Farrell, a fellow who won two gold medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics in the 4 x 100 medley relay and the 4 x 200 free relay. (How he got onto the Olympic team after having his appendix removed two weeks before trials is an even more amazing story.)

When Jeff was in the 60-64 age group he swam an American record of 23.28 and was named swimmer of the year in 1997. There is a bio over at the USMS website where you can read all about his great accomplishments. [Link]