July 31, 2001

Alexa Merz

Palisades Malibu YMCA

California

Often times when I go to big meets, I feel as if I don’t belong. All of the swimmers look larger and faster than me. I usually think…. “What if I don’t belong here? What if I flew almost 3,000 miles for nothing?” The latter is a very common concern of mine. My team, PALY (or Palisades Malibu YMCA), is in Los Angeles, California. We only have had four girls for the past two years at Long Course Nationals (even less at Short Course), and other Y’s from our area never come to Maryland for this meet. Of course, it’s always fun to be regarded by other teams as “ those cool kids from LA”, although I must admit that the typical “wow! Do you live next to movie stars” gets a little annoying. But now that I think of it, I think it is worth it to brave a five and a half hour flight with a bad pilot to come here and not even swim well. This trip is so much fun, all I really care about it feeling good in the water, and being happy with my race. It doesn’t matter if I get first or fiftieth, because I’ll know that I tried my hardest, and I can’t ask more of myself than that.

Now for the races…I had two events today; the 50m Breast and the 50m Free. I did decent times, and I felt good, so I’m pretty happy. I don’t swim again until Friday (today is Tuesday), so I guess I don’t have to think about swimming until then (haha). Until tomorrow, so long!