three minutes

The boys both participated in a county wide swim meet yesterday. Bug had not been registered for competition for some reason, and when another child was being registered on site, I asked if he could be added too. $24 for a swim suit later, he was ready for action.

Bug swam 25 meter freestyle, Pook 25 meter freestyle and 25 meter backstroke. There were up to twelve heats of each event, up to ten children in each heat, ranked to swim with others their ability. All in all, we were at the location for five hours- either camping out on a blanket in the gym with two hundred others, or watching from the stands. They had a bit of time to swim and get used to the huge environment at the beginning, but of the five hours, less than three minutes were in the water competing!

They managed the stress really well; there were many very serious swim teams participating and our league is a Just For Fun league. They played around with the other children from our team and enjoyed the festive atmosphere in the building. I might have been the most anxious of the three of us!

It was a great experience for them and they had fun doing it. Maybe we'll see some of those children in the Olympics someday.