A Day in the Life: Sarah Groff-Palermo, Day 6

Even better were our coaches. Not only do they put up with our baleful faces practice after practice–and mine especially for which they deserve medals of patience–but they did a fantastic job at the meet as well. With nearly 40 swimmers and three 10-hour days, they shouted themselves hoarse, gave helpfully pointed feedback, and generally made the whole endeavor much better. I am sure we will repay them by resuming our lazy, mistake-ridden ways as soon as we return to practice. Thanks, guys.

This afternoon the meet was broken for a salute to John Merrill, who at 90 broke all three Masters backstroke records. Pretty inspiring, that.

I finished out with my first ever 200 fly, of which I think I will be swimming many more: not the least because the fun of seeing people's faces when they talk about it outweighs the hurt at least a little.

Having recovered from my cold a bit, I also took a second off my day 1 relay split in the 50 free, snagging another national qualification.

One of the easiest satisfactions of being somewhat new to competition is that you can do things like a drop a second in your 50 without the difficulty that longtime swimmers have. It certainly makes meets even more addictive. In the warmdown pool, I ran into the woman who will be your next Masters correspondent, and I am sure she will have another interesting approach to this whole shebang.