Take Your Mark From Paris

Guest blog by Annie Chandler

PARIS, France, June 24. IT's Take Your Mark day as competition starts tomorrow and concludes Sunday night at the Paris Open. That's just two days – a sprinter's kind of meet. Likely the reason some of the sprint events are so heavily stacked here, especially on the men's side.

France takes pride in their stock of freestyle gods that proved mortal in the 400 free relay in Beijing. The chest-pounding Brazilian Cesar Cielo is here, and will have his work cut out for him against explosive American Nathan Adrian and experienced Frenchman Fred Bousquet.

Sprint backstroke should be a showdown as well between Matt Grevers, Randall Bal, and Camille Lacourt. As for the breaststroke, I have not swum in an international field lacking Rebecca Soni or Jessica Hardy in…well…never.

I have some great competition from some of Europe and Africa's finest, Holland's Moniek Nijhuis and Morocco's Sara El Bekri. El Bekri was an exchange student for my Arizona Wildcats our senior year, and was a fantastic training partner and teammate and remains a valued friend.

All competing swimmers moved into the Novotel Le Defense today, which is located in Paris' business district. We look out the window, and could very well be in Chicago. The structures rise high and no Paris identifiers are in sight. I guess that's a lie; we are right on the River Seine, but it's out of hotel window range.

Matt and I have been riding the Metro most of the way to the pool the past two days, so the short shuttle ride from the Novotel is a welcome accommodation. We turned onto the main boulevard, crossed the River Seine, and gazed out to a view of the distant Arc de Triomphe – so cool! So there's a site that gets bumped up in priority on the post-meet, 48-hour, sightseeing whirlwind tour I have planned.

Great news: Matt and I no longer have sore calves, so we cannot use that as an excuse if we happen to swim poorly, which neither of us plan on doing. I felt horrendous in the water on Wednesday (as expected after travel), slightly worse yesterday (which made me feel almost guilty about walking to the Basilique Sacre Couer on Tuesday, but not really because I refuse to leave Paris without experiencing it), and today I felt primed and ready for action. There's a typical taper pattern for you, no pattern of feeling good or bad for me.

Taper is just a bumpy road that you sometimes ride smoothly during a meet, but the road makes no difference because you have a sporty car with excellent suspension and a full tank to get you anywhere with utmost speed. Looking too deep into the way you feel at the last moment is a sure way to mess up a potentially great meet or race. Feeling out of shape is one thing, but knowing you have practiced as perfectly as you can and are ready to perform despite a funky feel is another.

Au revoir! Going to finish shaving the bod, feed the tum, then hit the sack early so I rise rested and ready.

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