MMR - Spencer's Blog

Hey all again,
For the last blog entry, i have a pretty entertaining one for you. So the 200 breast was today and boy was i ready for it. I felt strong and good in the water but just a little tired. Now before i start telling you the play by play of this race, Ken told margi and i a story during our time here about a runner at the olympic trials who just stopped because he was losing i believe or just really tired. OK keep that in mind for this, and no i did not stop.
So i get behind the blocks ready to go, i'm seated dead last because i made this cut by one hundreth of a second so things could only get better for me. My reaction time off the block was .66 and I felt so good I took out my first 25 meters fast then I did in my 100 breast. Well ok then i thought to myself lets keep this going. By the end of the first hundred i'm thinking, Wow i'm a little tired but time to turn it on! I take it up a notch for the last 100! I touch the wall for my 150 now completely exhausted but knowing that I always have something left coming home. I push off the wall, do my pullout and then I take my first stroke on my last 50.....OH MY GOSH! DEAR GOD let me get to the wall alive! I could have defined the meaning of "my arms and legs feel like lead" at that moment! For one moment i had a negative thought...Now that guy stopped running and just walked to the side...what if i just swam to the side right now? Other than knowing Ken would probably killed me, I of course wouldn't have done that. Reaching the wall was like heaven on earth. For some odd reason that i can't explain i did not go a best time. According to Ken i took it out to fast, but no excuses here! I did better my placement somehow, i guess i wasn't the only one who's arms and legs turned to lead.
Being at the olympic trials was an experience i will never forget. Reaching a goal I've had for 16 years is beyond words. It was great hearing from everyone and it has made this experience all the better. Thank you everyone for the encouragement and support before and during trials. Amanda, Margaret, Ashlee, and I thank you all with all our hearts, Thank you swimming family!

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So for the past two days I've been time trialing the 100 breast, trying for the 1:03. Yesterday I went a 1:04.63, and today I went a 1:05.14. So sadly I did not accomplish my goal, but looking back on it I'm ok with that. I am proud to be one of the swimmers who dropped time and overcame the pressure and controling the excitment I was feeling to a healthy amount. Also today was probably one of the most memorable moments in my career and I wasn't even in the water. There's a site called Godtube.com that I went to to get myself in the mind of fighting for this race and getting my mind in the right spot. One of them is call war call and a few quotes really struck home for swimming and for life. (Especially since I've been trying to get this time)
"Courage is not defined by those who have faught and did not fall, but thouse who faught, fell and rose again."
"Nothing is changed by a mediocre performance"
"Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might!" Ecclesiastes 9:10
These reminded me to stand firm in what I believed and that I'm not going to accomplish my goals everytime but it doesn't mean for me to give up after the first time, but to keep going knowing that that day will come when I reach that goal, or that swim will come and the time beaten.
Tomorrow is the 200 breast and I'll give it all I have left, thinking of all of you at home!

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Well this has been an experience i will never forget as long as i live. I don't think Omaha wanted us here to begin with because within the first 3 hours of us being here we were hit by a tornado! At first i thought i was being kicked out of the pool already, and i had no idea what i could have done. But it was pretty exciting, and hilarious watching margi in the fetal position(yes i got pictures)
So the day of the 100 Breast was amazing. I was excited, i felt great in the water and it was just the perfect enviroment to go fast. I finally started to get nervous in the clerk of course, not really bad nervous but just enough to make me get up and start pacing a little. Before I lead my heat out onto the deck from the lower deck I bowed my head to pray like I have before every race. I would have never made it to this moment if it wasn't for Him. He has blessed me beyond my imagining to accomplish waht i already have in swimming and in life.
I stepped out onto the deck and walked the pool to my lane, now that is an image i won't forget! I could never have imagined it being like that. It was beyond words for me to describe. I have dreamed of that moment since i was 3 years old. To stand with some of the best in the world and compete for a place on the olympic team. Though i didn't make it I know that i gave it all i had and that even being here is something to be proud of.
Even though we still have three days here it seems like it is flying by. But i couldn't ask for a better friend to spend and experience this with then Margi. And there is no better coach to stand right there with us.
Now all I have left is to time trial the 100 Breast again today and to finish this week up with the 200 breast. Swimming for all you guys back home!