No, I'm not talking about Thanksgiving when I say Gobbler... I'm talking about the Gobbler Classic Swim Meet hosted by the Sierra Marlins!! Christian swam with the Marlins in the Spooktacular back in October and this is the second (and last) swim meet he can swim in as part of the Fall clinic he is attending with the Marlins.
Leading up to the meet the weather was not looking too good. As in, rain, cold, wind... Not fun to be outdoor wearing a speedo for a boy who has no body fat to insulate him from the cold. Worse when your very emotional and cannot tolerate any discomfort whatsoever with moaning and crying about...
In talking with another swim parent I got an idea on how to stay warm and dry --- use a camping tent! So I went out and bought a decent 6-person camping tent that is somewhat easy to setup and take down and it worked out great! It didn't really rain while we were out there, but it did overnight. The beginning of Saturday was actually nice and sunny, but by the end of the afternoon it was gett windy and cold. Sunday started cool, got warmer, ended cool with a light drizzle.
Christian playing his DS in the tent
This is one of those classic videos... Christian is getting ready to start the 25 Butterfly. They are not on starting blocks and when he goes down to get set, he loses his balance and falls in... No worries, he thought it was funny and got back and swam a good race!
Now when it came to swimming he did well. His first race, 50 Freestyle, we left the tent with plenty of time. Met with his coach as he is supposed to do before each race for tips/pointers. They were on heats 16-17 and he was heat 21 and we were right around the corner... But things fly at these meets and as we walked up to the block I thought he still had 4 in front of him, but they were calling him up right then - they waited about 15 seconds and let him get undressed and onto the block. We barely made it, but we did!! He swam a great 50 Free getting his best Marlins 50 Free time. He also swam great in the 25 Free (video below) getting his best time EVER of 20.57 seconds! So close to breaking that 20 seconds barrier, I'm sure he'll be there by his next meet for the Otters!!