My first day as an official semi-regular at The Treehouse. It's nice to be part of the gang. It was also swim practice day.

Last week Coach Jennifer talked me into signing up for a swim meet. The meet is this weekend and I am SO glad I haven't been thinking far enough ahead to get the jitters. I'm sure the time up to the meet will fly by, I'll quickly dispense of my four events and I'll be left to enjoy some camaraderie with my fellow old folks. I'm sure Coach Jennifer will be putting together a relay. I love relays. It's a chance to shine and have your hard effort tangibly benefit others. For some reason, it just suits my personality to be a relay team member and I always put in a good showing.

The Torpedo (one of the biggest, strongest, best-est swimmers on the team) is back after a serious car accident where he was badly hurt, including having his elbow shattered. He's a real tough guy and has been working hard to get back into form. I was swimming in a lane beside him and ended up doing a set of ten 50 metre swims next to him, leaving on the same interval. I noticed that he really doesn't like to finish behind anyone, even in practice. As I noticed this after the second fifty, I felt the competitive me saunter up to the controls and push my body to stay ahead of him, fifty after fifty. I'd like to say I let him beat me on the last five 50's, but truth be known, he's one strong bull. I wasn't alone in noticing this - one of the Two Broads remarked after the set, "Jesus, he's still kicking our asses. I wish someone would crush my elbow."

One of the places where I still have The Torpedo beat is in the turn. I don't often brag, but I have to tell you, I have beautiful, efficient turns. I can usually gain about two metres on my turn, which is substantial in a 50 metre race. The meet on Saturday is a short course meet, meaning that it is swum in a 25 metre pool. This gives me one turn in my 50 metre races and three turns in the 100 metre race. I'll let you know how things go.