Friday morning, after the big Quad, I slept in and then drank coffee like it came down from heaven itself. Penny and I had reservations in downtown Meridian and a search of my memory convinced me that I had never even been there. I am 66-years old, have lived my whole life in the state, and had never been to Meridian, Mississippi.
Penny and I finally dragged ourselve out of the house, into her truck, and found a high gear. First we headed south then east. We stopped a little while in Jackson so Penny could hit three of her stores, then we hit I 20 East for M town. I was surprised when we got to downtown Meridian. It's bigger than Greenwood, and the downtown area has some really tall buildings. The hotel we stayed at, The Treefoot has thirteen floors, if I counted correctly.
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| The pool at Meridian Community College |
We got checked in, which is a story itself. A few days ago, my bank contacted me about a charge on my card. I did not make the charge so they shut my debit card down. Until then, I had no clue how dependant I am on a debit card. Suddenly going back to cash and checks seemed like stepping back in time, back to the Stone Ages.
When I attempted to check us in at the Threefoot, the lady behind the desk asked if I wanted to leave it on the same card. I told her the story and she told me that they had to have a card on file. We have a credit card, but we had not used it since 2019. When I handed her that, she punched in the numbers and said, "This one will not work." Our account had been closed. She repeated that they "had to have a card on file."
When I asked, "How about cash on file?" she said no. Huh? You're kidding, right?
To make a short story long, we eventually checked in on my wife's debit card.
Now, get this. When we went to check out, we were told that we weren't in the system. Finally, the girl found my name but told me that the record said, "Did not arrive."
Huh!?!?
Again, to make a short story long, she told us to forget it. After she repeated that a few times, I said, "Thank you," grabbed my wife's hand, and hustled us out of there as quickly as possible. We did not have to pay for the room. THANK YOU JESUS.
The swim meet was held at Meridian Community Collge. I typed the name of the pool into my phone's maps and let it lead the way. We wound up in a parking lot at a Mississippi State University extension. We had passed the college on the way to State, but I did not think the pool was there. From the pictures I found on the internet, it looked like it sat by itself off a highway. Eventually, we drove over to the Community College campus and started asking questions. We found it. The poo, is a six lane 25 meter job. I had never swum short course meters before. Looking at it, I could not tell the difference. Warming up, I took two strokes more per length than in a short course yards pool. Also, I notice that the T on the bottome to clue you when to turn looked farther away. I measured in by stepping it off in the water. It was six inches farther from the wall.
The meet started at 11:00. My first event was the 100 free. I was in the pool with several other guys in different age groups. I won the 65 - 69 age group, but was beaten soundly be a guy in the 60 - 64 group. He was Les Goff and will age up into my group next year. I have some work to do if I don't want to lose to him next year. I don't. I'm proud like that.
Next up for me was the 50 meter breast. I am a slow breast stroker. The only reason I signed up for this one is I was trying to improve my breast stroke, trying to broaden my range as a swimmer. I had a guy on each side of me. When we started and I broke the water on my pullout, I was suprised when I did not see anyone else. I thought, something is wrong. As I stroked down the pool, I was waiting to see the other guys pass me. I made it to the wall without seeing anyone. I turned and saw the guy on my left on his back. What!?!?!
After my turn, the other guy, now on my left was breast stroking but was behind me. I won. That was a huge shock to me that I actually won a breast stroke event. I was now two events in and had two gold medals.
The 50 free was next. I was in the pool with Les Goff and a 52 year old who had been a scholarship swimmer for four years at Delta State. They both beat me, but I beat the other 65-year old in the pool for gold number three.
Again, for the 200 free, I was in the pool with the good guys, and the results were the same. The former DSU swimmer beat me badly, but he was not in my group. Gold number four.
My fifth individual event was the 400 free. This is one that I am suited for. Les Goff did not swim this one. The old DSU guy (everything he swam was a new State Games record) lapped me. But I won my group for number five in the gold medal department.
The guy announcing the meet then said anyone wanting to swim relays, come to one end of the pool. Since I did not have a team, I didn't walk down there. Penny and I were preparing to leave when Jack Malette, walked up and asked if I wanted to swim relays. I didn't know how to answer him. "We need ya'" he said, so I went down there.
I did not know until the whole thing was over with, but the relays there is a very impromtu event. They don't even show up in the official results and everybody who swims in them is given a gold medal. That's how I wound up with nine golds.
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| About to swim the relays |
Once down there with the other relayers, it was like being a kid in the backyard again. We quickly divided up teams, drew our plans up in the dirt, and swam. I had a blast. We only had three men on my team, so someone had to swim two legs in the Medly relay. The someone was me who swam butterfly and free. I did it. It felt ugly. I asked one of my teammates when it was over if it looked as ugly as it felt. He said he wasn't watching, which means he saw it and it looked very ugly. But I did it, and I feel really good about that. So we swam the 100 free realy, the 100 Medly, and then we moved some women around and did it all over again with mixed teams. Between the warmups, events, and cool downs, I swam 1,950 meters. A pretty good training day.
I have not had so much fun since I was on my honeymoon forty-five years ago. I am already thinking about next year. The State Games record in the 400 meter free is 6:22.49. I swam 6:36.52, and I felt like all my times were a little slow. Hey, we did Crazy Man Quadrathon two days before. I am going after that record. I think that with a year of training for it, I can break that record. That is one of my goals for 2023. Thank God for goals. They make life interesting.
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| The medals I won. |
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| The swimmers who stuck around for a picture. |
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