Swimmer Advice-Tips, Tricks, and Ideas

My best race ever

So, if you get the USA swim magazine, Splash, you probably know that they have an Olympian and a regular person talk about their best race ever. So. That's what I'm gonna start doing; feel free to dm me your best race, and I will add an update and dedicate it to you. So. I'll go first.

My best race ever was in 8th grade, at Conference championships. I had recently started swimming distance; I had swam the 200 probably 3 times before, same with the 500. I was pretty new to this style, and I had trouble keeping my head up, meaning my counter and I had a special signal worked out, per my coach's instructions.  Anyways, I had already swam my 200, achieving a PR of 2:25, dropping 5 seconds, and placing 7th in varsity. So I was pretty psyched. But then. The 500. My previous time was 6:48, and I thought I was going to drop quite a bit of time. I was in the last varsity heat, and I felt good. Smooth, so, I just went. Kicked like my life depended on it, picked my head up. Windmills my arms. I was fast. By the 300 mark, my goggles were fogging. I could barely make out the shapes of other swimmers ahead of me, but I thought "what the heck" and just went for it. As I reached the wall to turn for the last 75, I saw my counter holding the lap counting board (I actually am not sure what it's called) and shaking it up and down. Well, s***, I thought. I need to pick my head up, and go faster. I lifted my head up so high, my neck muscles were burning by the end. My legs felt ready to fall off, I was kicking so fast. But if was worth it. When I touched the pad, and lifted my head up, I saw a new PR: 6:25. I dropped 23 seconds. Even my non swimmer friends were impressed. My coach was so proud, I thought she was going to burst. She was all like "oh my gosh, you actually picked your head up!" And I was just like "yeah. Duh." 

Oh yeah, and my placing? I got 5th. My best race ever.