[This is the first post in a series of updates I’ll be making that are LONG overdue]
After six years and three teams, I think I am finally starting to get this whole swim thing down!! Rather than waiting until the morning of a meet, I’m starting the night before packing things together for swim meets a staple of supplies beyond the obvious of swim gear and clothes appropriate to the weather --- if you know me then you know preparing meals and such ahead of time is something I struggle to do... Here's what we currently bring to meets:
- PB&J Sandwiches for the big breaks
- Fruits – fresh sliced fruit and other things like dried mango
- Applesauce (Frozen in summer)
- Various bars (often Nutrigrain cereal bars)
- Water, water and more water (in the summer some frozen and in the winter some hot)
- Powdered drinks to mix with water (Gatorade and/or Hot Chocolate)
- Hot hands (hand warmers) and cup-o-noodle for the winter
- Trash bags, napkins, etc
- Legos, books and other games (and sometimes video games though we are trying to do more without video games)
Now that he’s swimming more events in a meet than he has in the past it has become even more important to find what works to replenish the body quickly without weighing him down. This has always been the biggest challenge for meets, we used to buy food from the snack bar to support the local teams, but the food is rarely good food for an athlete during competition so now we bring our own and then once he's done swimming we usually buy something tasty from the snackbar.
And then there is the “camp” setup… We have transitioned from old slant-leg canopy to a new commercial grade straight leg canopy with walls for the winter. We have weights for the legs in light winds and buckets of water with rope when something more is needed. We also switched from chairs to loungers… Have picked up a small table, blanket, etc… And how do we get all to camp?!? Stacked high in a wagon and tied down with bungee cords! [though sometimes we make more than one trip to get stuff to camp] We’ve done meets in the rain, wind and summer heat, and I actually feel prepared to handle it!
Of course, as he gets older I'm sure I'll have to tweak what we bring, so while I feel good about what's happening today, doesn't mean I'm done adapting --- I'm sure our list of supplies will change over time.
