BELIEVING IN YOUR DREAMS

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Kitchen Drawer is a very cool (“Free to a good home”) magazine based in Griffin, Georgia. I started writing artist profiles for the magazine last year, and my first one appeared in the November/December issue. In addition to my artist profile in the current issue (Volume 6 Issue 3), another article I wrote was published. Check it out here: http://issuu.com/kitchendrawer/docs/6_3_final?e=0/8465165

Thanks to Betsy Harris, my writing mentor/editor/friend who encouraged me to submit this article. Allison Smyly and her staff at Kitchen Drawer get a big thanks for choosing to publish it! Finally, the biggest thanks of all goes out to my husband, Bruce Cook who always patiently honors my request to photograph and/or video my races. I love you!

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These are photos Bruce shot that didn’t make the cut:

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My surgeon, Dr. Richard Braun

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MY SWIMMING TWIN?

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My swimming buddy, Debbie Duane is at USMS Spring Nationals and found my swimming twin! I’m not so sure she really looks like my twin; however, I’ll leave that for you to decide.

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Me and my swim buddy, Deb

We do have similarities that make me smile. Deb says Michal has a “bubbly personality” like me, and she is also a breaststroker in the 50-54 year old age group. Cool!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to meet my twin in person. I passed on attending Spring Nationals in Santa Clara, California in favor of spending my travel budget this summer. I will be competing in Montreal at Masters World Championships as well as USMS Summer Nationals at University of Maryland. There are a few days in between the two competitions, so we will be taking the train from Montreal to Quebec City to see the old city. From there, we will fly to Washington, D.C. and drive to College Park, Maryland for Nationals.

Meanwhile, today I competed at the Gwinnett County Senior Games. The good news is that I won six gold medals! The bad news is that I was the only competitor in my age group. I was the baby geezer at the pool!

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IT WAS GREAT WHILE IT LASTED

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For the second year in a row, I won the Georgia Championship Series for my age group. This series is a United States Masters Swimming year-long competition that takes place in the state of Georgia. The trophy is awarded to the swimmer in each age group with the most accumulated points in a designated short course yards (25-yard pool) swim meet, long course meters (50-meter pool) meet, open water competition, and short course meters (25-meter pool) meet. To qualify, a swimmer has to participate in at least three of those four competitions throughout the year.

By no means am I the fastest swimmer in my age group. The way I win is by competing at all four events, swimming the maximum amount of races allowed at the pool meets, and racing the hardest events that most women my age would never attempt. Last year, only 16 women in the country in the 50-54 year old age group competed in the 200 meter long course butterfly, and 24 raced the 400 meter individual medley.

At the open water competition, I raced the 3K and 1K back-to-back both years and discovered how much I really enjoy swimming long distance events!

The Lotto motto is, “You can’t win if you don’t play.” My motto is, “You can’t win if you don’t show up!” Of course, for me, I also can’t win unless I race all of the difficult events that nobody else wants to swim. How else do you think I win 1st places in those tough events? I’m the only one in my age group crazy enough to race them!

I’m not that slow; however, there are a couple of my teammates who are Top Ten swimmers in the country. The gal who won high points at the first 2014 Georgia Championship Series meet is #1 in the country and used to swim for UGA (University of Georgia). At least I beat out the other three gals to place second for the meet.

Winning two years in a row was a combination of hard work, motivation, endurance, having tons of fun, and being lucky enough that the faster gals didn’t show up to all of the meets. This year, it looks like Ms. #1 is planning on competing at every meet—including the open water competition. Oh well, she’s a super nice gal and an awesomely fast swimmer.

It was great while it lasted!

SNOWPOCALYPSE AT “SUN” CITY PEACHTREE, GRIFFIN GEORGIA

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For a town that averages two inches of snow per year and had no snow in 2013, this has been quite a frosty year!

We were housebound yesterday from an ice storm that caused thousands to lose power to their homes. Thankfully, our utilities are underground, so we stayed warm and toasty.

This was the scene this morning:

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LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!

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As a Southern California girl, snow isn’t something I have experienced very often. Before moving to Griffin, Georgia, I could count on one hand the times I had ever seen snow either falling or on the ground, and I had only seen it actually snow once. Since moving to Griffin in 2009, this is the second good snow storm we have had. Just like in 2011, this storm is expected to leave us with a few inches of snow on the ground, just enough to build a snowman just as Bruce and I had done during our 2011 storm.

Bruce and I just returned home from a rehearsal for a play (ironically, he performs “Summertime” in the prologue) that is supposed to be performed tomorrow and Thursday. I say “supposed to,” because we all just might become housebound due to black ice!

As I sit here writing this post, the snow is falling, and the temperature is 29 degrees and on its way to a low of 18. The predicted temperature for Saturday is 64/50! Is this crazy or what? Normal temperatures for this time of year are mid-50’s for the high and low-30’s for the low.

Here are some pictures taken just before returning home:

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SUN (ICE?) CITY PEACHTREE

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Never in my life would it have occurred to me that I could experience colder temperatures in Griffin, Georgia than in Qaqortoq, Greenland. After all, when I stepped off the cruise ship in Qaqortoq it was a frosty 19 degrees, the coldest temperature this Southern California girl had ever endured. I ended up adding my nose to the list of body parts affected by Raynaud’s, thanks to a full day spent hiking up and down the hills exploring the town on that frigid day. What a wimp I was! The local boys rode around on their bikes with opened flannel shirts blowing in the breeze and just a t-shirt on underneath.

More than five years later, here I am in the deep South laughing at 19 degrees! Last night before turning in, weather.com reported a temperature of 17 degrees with a “feels like” temperature at 5 degrees. The low dipped to 14 degrees with a “feels like” of -2! I didn’t stay up long enough to find out; my bed (and Bruce!) seemed like a cozier alternative.

At the moment, it’s a balmy 27 degrees, so I wrapped myself up in my warmest duds to venture out to our waterfall- uhhhh, make that “ice fall!”

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Another U.S. Masters Swimming Relay Top Ten!

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2013 has been a good year for me for relay rankings, especially since I have dealt with a variety of injuries. Earlier in the year, I learned that my 800 Yard Mixed Freestyly Relay just made Short Course USMS Top Ten by placing 10th. Today, I just learned that my 400 Meter Women’s Medley Relay (total ages in the 160-199 age group) placed 4th in the Long Course Meters USMS Top Ten. Now, we sit tight and wait to see how we ranked in the world. Odds are in our favor that we will make FINA Top Ten, if past history is an accurate predictor.

It was truly an honor to have the opportunity to swim with three awesome swimmers: Malena Hankins (backstroke), Cathy Jones (butterfly), and Ashley Grindlay (freestyle). I swam breaststroke and was probably at my worst ever as a masters swimmer, due to an adductor muscle injury and some other medical issues I was experiencing at the time. For better or for worse, here is our swim. We are in the second lane from the bottom of the screen, swimming next to the guys. Since there were not many teams entered in this relay, all of the men’s and women’s relay teams swam at the same time against the clock. Our final time was recorded in the USMS database and compared against other women’s relays in the combined 160-199 age group: http://youtu.be/ms-1OvW02U8