YES!!!!!! I am finally in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. 12 months of hard training is finally paying off. All of those times that I had to give something up for swimming, whether it is was staying out late with my friends or missing some cool event for another swim meet in who knows where, are now worth every minute missed. Now since I do spend so much time with my teammates, they’ve become family. This is what makes this sport better than all of the others. This family has spent the last four months in intensive training to get here today. This last week has been the hardest in that we were in the final stages of our taper; subsequently we had A LOT of energy. By that point the beaches are calling out our name. But we made it through it and we all showed up at the airport on Sunday morning.

We were all excited but starting to feel some of those nerves in the pit of our stomach. The plane rides are always fun, except this year we ran into a little storm in Atlanta that got all of our luggage wet. Oh well, it was bound to get wet sometime. Our team could not get a ticket into Ft. Lauderdale, so we decided to fly into Miami and drive up. We realized we were in Miami, when we got off the plane and felt the air that was a sticky 86 degrees. That is always a nice change from the low 60’s we were having back home in South Carolina. We then went to eat as team (as we always do) and then went to the hotel and got some much-needed rest for the rest of the week.

Now Monday has finally arrived and we are proceeding to go through our regimented schedule that we follow each year. This consists of checking in at the host hotel around nine and getting our beloved bands that had to be pink this year. Once this lovely task was complete, we proceeded to the Hall Of Fame Pool. Man I love this pool. We got our morning stretch out in and then went back to the hotel and got some lunch. Scott Dogg, our head coach, went to the coaches meeting and we went with our assistant to the pool for workout. It would be our luck that as soon as we change and get ready to get into the pool a monstrous storm would blow in and cause us to get stuck here without getting the chance to get in. Oh well. We met our coach at our favorite restaurant (Bravo’s) later on that night for dinner. Then that night back at the hotel, we began our infamous shaving party, where the ladies help out the incompetent guys. I really hate the smooth legs because my legs stick to the sheets of the bed and for a person who isn’t used to that it is hard to sleep that way.

Now the first day of competition, what a day it was. Our team had some good swims and some not so good swims. First things first, my lane partner had a wonderful 100 back and qualified, I am so proud of her. And then our transplant girl from Tennessee, Anna, swam a good 50 and qualified, but had a not so good 500. That is the way things go with Y-Nationals. If one were to sit out on deck and just watch the faces of the swimmers as they exit and enter the pool, they would see the jubilation and pain from those who have just swam their best race or what seems like their worst race of their lives. It all comes out at this meet because of all of the hours that have been put into just getting here. Then you have the coaches around deck, who have dedicated their lives to this sport, have some of the best and worst faces around. They do manage to show them to you after your race whether you want to see it or not. But that is ok; I got to see the face of my coach today after my race. It was an ok face because the rainstorm that just had to blow up right before my race had just soaked him. I swam about my best time, not what I wanted to do but I didn’t add too much so I am not going to complain. Well that is enough for the first day. I will wait and spill the rest of my story tomorrow. See ya then.

Brad Poole

Spartanburg YMCA

South Carolina

April 2, 2002