Ocala Masters Swim Meet or The Workout With Timers

Knowing that I just wasn't in a swim meet state of mind I took today as a swim practice.  I swam my slowest times ever but I got some time in a long course pool.  I actually thought of skipping the meet all together but it was only 30 minutes away so I decided to go and just bite the bullet.  I entered myself in 5 events which included two sprints!  I wonder how drunk I was when I filled out the entry form? 
I entered the 50 fly, 50 back, 200 back, 200 butterfly and 400 freestyle.  I will admit that I ended up scratching the 200 butterfly.  I so wasn't feeling it.  Plus I didn't was to be toast for the 400 free.  Mainly because in every other event I was the only person in my age group but in the 400 there was someone entered with me.  Since his seeded time was close to mine I really wanted to have a race.  Well it turned out that he scracthed the 400 free and my time was so slow that I should have done the 200 butterfly since I don't know if I could have gone any slower. 
When we arrived to the pool I was informed that a fire had taken away the pool's locker rooms.  So they had outdoor showers and trailers of locker rooms.  As for the pool itself the depth was 3 to 4 feet deep.  Not an ideal place for a swim meet but what they hey it's a chance to swim. We found some shade and staked out some space.  I did a very short warm up.  I could tell that I was just not going to have a good day.  I was a bit wonky.  I also kept getting distracted by how shallow the pool was, the big gaps of plaster on the bottom of the pool and the odd white traffic cone in the middle of the next lane over.  I did a 500 meter warm up. 
I had a few events before I'd swim my first 50.  I enteretained myself by listening in to the conversations around me.  The lady in front of me was the editor of the Florida LMSC's newsletter.  To which I kept thinking "they have a newsletter"?  Newsletters seem so PTA-ish with annoucements of bake sales for school books.  Even though I thought the pool was crappy and was feeling like shit a guy to my right broke some record in the 50 butterfly.  I think he then missed a record in the 200 butterfly.  Then there was a girl between the newsletter gal and the record breaking guy who just was chattering up a storm.  Think she was given too much meth or something.  I really wanted to tell her to shut up at one point. 
The timers were local kids from the age group team.  The girls were squealing, well like school girls.  I should say they were supose to be timing but think they spent more texting and playing Angry Birds.  While waiting for heats I got to hear all the gossip about the cute boys and the girls who are skanks.  Teenage gossip!
Also I know all the afternoon times for Harry Potter as they were discussing which time to go see it.  That and if one guy was going to take a nap or go hang out with this girl at her house.  Yeah, I spent way too much time waiting for the 400 freestyle. The coolest thing of the day, and no pun intended, was seeing the makeshift pool chillers.  See that pvc piping?  Well it snaked down along the wall underwater.  Above the water which was covered by a towel was some sorta mechanism that then spread the pool water over the pool to chill it out.  I so wish I had an underwater camera to show the extent of pvc pipe in the water.  This part of the pool was deep as it was a diving well.  Deep for this pool but not to deep for diving wells.
From a pool with a pimped out pvc pool chilling system to a pimped out car.  That was my day.  You may have noticed the lack of talk about my swims mainly cuz' they sucked.  To sum up the meet "It was like a workout but with timers."  Yeah, that it was.  I'm tired and sore from the swims.  Just a shame my times weren't good.  Oh and don't expect any pictures from this meet in your local PTA I mean Florida LMSC Newsletter.  The editor dropped her camera in the water.  Doh!