swim team conclusion

This was the summer of swim team for Aaron and Thomas.  And, well, to be honest, I don't think they exactly loved it.  I loved it, because they got to swim a lot and practice their skills, but technically speaking I wasn't the one having to do the actual swimming (whatever). They, who were actually swimming, were sort of mehh on the whole experience.

We had three swim meets over the summer.  Two of them were at our local outdoor pool about 1 mile from our house. They raced three races each time and we were done about three hours later.  The boys didn't win a single race.  Mostly they came in last place or almost last place. (I think this may have contributed to their not liking it so much.) They are used to winning and being really good at things so being in last place was difficult for them. However, they both improved every time they raced and that's all we cared about.  Aaron, especially was at a disadvantage because he is 13 and had to race against kids ranging from 13-15. Have you seen a 15 year old boy lately? Much, much bigger than my young 13 year old son.

The final meet was the county championships held at a indoor pool up by Sugarhouse park. Had we know that literally, possibly, what felt like every single person that lives in our county was going to be crammed into that building, we would have skipped that last meet.  It was so crowded we could barely see the swimmers. It was boiling hot and mind numbingly noisy and I contemplated committing hari kari off the balcony just to get some relief. The meet was 8 hours long. After each boy had raced twice, we decided we'd had enough and we skipped out....(ditchers!)

Overall, summer swim team was a good experience. I hope the boys will do it again next summer, but I have my doubts.