over the hills and into backwoods

just got back from hillsborough, nc. its a small town outside the triangle that has little to offer. but, it does have a pretty sweet sports complex that combines an ice skating rink with an 11 lane competition pool and 3+ lane warm pool. so in fact, it may be even better than most suburbs. but, theres still not much there besides that. i was in charge of driving, so in our off time we took a scenic exploration of the area but were unable to find anything of real interest. we were mostly in search of food, and though they have a walmart and some chain fast foods, there werent any local eateries except for this one place that was a swim meet sponser, vinny's. it was pretty good, fresh sauces, i dont think there were fresh pastas, maybe the ravioli and lasagna, but all in all, just a good local italian place. of course, to get there, it was a short trip from the hotel using two lane roads through the wilderness of north carolina. i did drive into durham, but it was only to scout for food, and we didnt get very far because we were starving so we hit the first reasonable place we could find, only to end up at subway because of the wait. but yeah, maybe one day ill have better reason to go down there and see whats going on in terms of civilization.

overall, great meet. well organized, super effecient, highly effective meet staff. as for competition, there was a lot of mediocre ability with a few stand out stars. olympian chip peterson was there to swim against, as well as some of his college buddies (i assume). but mostly it was filled with normal kids in age and ability ranges. nothing our senior team and advanced team was unfamiliar with. as usual, i placed somewhere between fast and good. dropped a little bit of time, went a 1:57 in my 200 free, 23:7 in 50 free, and 51.7 in my 100 free. oddly, i tied with the person next to me in the 200, and then tied with him again in the 50 even though we werent in the same heat that time. in the 100 i blew away everyone in my heat for some reason, just by going my seed time. so, looks like my weekend warrior tradition continues to be an effective form of exercise. even without being a reasonable form of training. most of the kids did ok, they all dropped serious time in some things, and added in some other areas. but it was a fun meet, mostly because it was timed finals, so we didnt have to wait and come back for another swim, we were simply done by 11 (for seniors) and 3 (for 12 and unders). so we had some good chill time in which we did nothing and i was forced to supervise and babysit - sort of. most of the kids came with their parents, so i only had to really worry about a handful and even then, with their interaction with the chaperoned kids, they were limited to the trouble they could get into.