Finally! Another update...
I guess I'm fully recovered now. I finished my Antibiotics on Sunday.
Here are the highlights of my Wednesday:
We're under partial lockdown for the whole weekend due to some specific threat against our compound. Gossip has it that it's just another stupid panick attack on the part of the consulates: they say it was sparked by a bunch of kids walking around the compound and pointing at the cameras to freak the guards out. I wouldn't be surprised if it were true. :P
But, consequently, we now have guards by the boatload all around us, and we have to show our ID's before we're allowed through the gates. Americans were supposed to get off the compound on Tuesday night, followed by the British nationals Wed. morning, but no one really told us... :P We wouldn't've left anyway... I mean, firstly, where would we go? (Actually, several of our dear friends on the team offered to let us stay with them - I was touched at how many people opened their arms and their homes, should we really have to leave our compound.) And secondly, we're not scared.
Well... maybe we are. And by 'we', I guess I mean 'me'. I didn't think much of it at all yesterday, because I was totally focused on the swim meet that evening, but after the swim meet, it started to sink in, and when Mom and I were reviewing the emergency procedures, I got a little unnerved.
The internet isn't a terribly secure place, so I won't write much more. As I said: I'm unnerved. So I don't really dare.
As for the swim meet: we had our first evening swim meet last night. For some reason, it was decided that this weekend's meet would be on Wednesday night instead of the morning on the weekend. I swam 200 meter Breaststroke, 50 backstroke, 50 breaststroke, and 100 freestyle. 200 breast and 50 breast were my main events - the rest of the events were just to keep warmed up.
The 200 went amazingly - I got a 6 second personal best, taking my time from 3:07.04 to 3:01.88. 3:01.88 is a new regional record (I had the old one, too), and is 00:01.88 away from a new National Record. I was pretty happy. I pushed myself so hard, I thought I was going to die - it'll take me a little bit to get over that feeling of exhaustion.
The 50 Back was insanely close to the 200: the latter was event 6, and the former was event 7. So I got out and back in again. :P I got 1 second slower. But it was an acceptable time. (For someone as dead tired as I was!)
I had about 15-20 minutes of rest between the two 50's, so I swam in the warmup pool to keep loosened up, flopped down to die, and listened to Kassandra tell me about her races. Kassandra is one of my favorite little swimmers (which isn't really fair - all of the little swimmers are my favorites ^_^). Kassandra is always cheerful, and is so delighted with swimming. If I had started swimming at her age, maybe I would have been like that. Another one of my favorites was Jessica, who would randomly run up to me from nowhere and give me a huge hug -- then refuse to let go! All of our swimmers did amazingly at the meet, and I am so incredibly proud of the entire SeaHawk "Duckie" division. :P
Anyway (back to my races, heh), when it came to the 50 breaststroke, my muscles were kind of stiff. But the stiffness was good, in my case, because I'm really not a sprinter. The stiffness made my body feel like it was a longer distance. I got 3 tenths of a second off my time: 39.37. I thought I was going to go insane, because the record is 39.33. My reaction was litterally: "YAY PB!" then "Aw, shit, I missed the record." LOL...
It goes without saying that the 100 free was a bad time... I didn't have my fastskin with me (it takes too long to change between events at these short meets). At this stage in my swimming, the fastskin really is the key to PBs (personal bests). Call me crazy, but that's how I feel. :P
SO, I got a hotdog and a donut as a reward, then we went out for shawarmas (the closest western equivalent I can think of would be 'Gyros', but comparatively, gyros suck monkey butt :P ). Ever since I got sick, I douse everything I eat with hot sauce. Weird, I know, but while I was sick my taste buds were messed up, so all I could taste was spicy. I even ate pudding and jello, and they tasted like cardboard. No fun.
And *knocking on wood* I'm still losing weight. For swimming, I know losing weight isn't really good, but I'm doing light training to rest my body, and therefore I am losing fat and not gaining much muscle. I'll start doing weight training to supplement the swimming next week.
I'm starting to plan for the Nationals coming up in May. I have to figure out the 10 events that I'll be swimming then, and start training for them. Especially if I'm going to be shooting for another High-Points Trophy this year. It'll be hard, because a bunch of the really good 14-year-olds just turned 15. Normally, I would have been asking myself if "a crippled swimmer like myself would ever have a chance against them" -- but now I know that if I could do what I did on Wednesday, then I'm not so "washed-out" after all. And I have the support of all my great friends on-line and off, as well as God's grace to thank.
Yeah, I'm a little emotional lately... *goofy grin* But I really have so much, and I just want everyone to know that I appreciate them. :)
For all you that prayed for me, talked about me, or even thought about me in passing, thanks! God bless!
Cheers,
Arassi
Here are the highlights of my Wednesday:
We're under partial lockdown for the whole weekend due to some specific threat against our compound. Gossip has it that it's just another stupid panick attack on the part of the consulates: they say it was sparked by a bunch of kids walking around the compound and pointing at the cameras to freak the guards out. I wouldn't be surprised if it were true. :P
But, consequently, we now have guards by the boatload all around us, and we have to show our ID's before we're allowed through the gates. Americans were supposed to get off the compound on Tuesday night, followed by the British nationals Wed. morning, but no one really told us... :P We wouldn't've left anyway... I mean, firstly, where would we go? (Actually, several of our dear friends on the team offered to let us stay with them - I was touched at how many people opened their arms and their homes, should we really have to leave our compound.) And secondly, we're not scared.
Well... maybe we are. And by 'we', I guess I mean 'me'. I didn't think much of it at all yesterday, because I was totally focused on the swim meet that evening, but after the swim meet, it started to sink in, and when Mom and I were reviewing the emergency procedures, I got a little unnerved.
The internet isn't a terribly secure place, so I won't write much more. As I said: I'm unnerved. So I don't really dare.
As for the swim meet: we had our first evening swim meet last night. For some reason, it was decided that this weekend's meet would be on Wednesday night instead of the morning on the weekend. I swam 200 meter Breaststroke, 50 backstroke, 50 breaststroke, and 100 freestyle. 200 breast and 50 breast were my main events - the rest of the events were just to keep warmed up.
The 200 went amazingly - I got a 6 second personal best, taking my time from 3:07.04 to 3:01.88. 3:01.88 is a new regional record (I had the old one, too), and is 00:01.88 away from a new National Record. I was pretty happy. I pushed myself so hard, I thought I was going to die - it'll take me a little bit to get over that feeling of exhaustion.
The 50 Back was insanely close to the 200: the latter was event 6, and the former was event 7. So I got out and back in again. :P I got 1 second slower. But it was an acceptable time. (For someone as dead tired as I was!)
I had about 15-20 minutes of rest between the two 50's, so I swam in the warmup pool to keep loosened up, flopped down to die, and listened to Kassandra tell me about her races. Kassandra is one of my favorite little swimmers (which isn't really fair - all of the little swimmers are my favorites ^_^). Kassandra is always cheerful, and is so delighted with swimming. If I had started swimming at her age, maybe I would have been like that. Another one of my favorites was Jessica, who would randomly run up to me from nowhere and give me a huge hug -- then refuse to let go! All of our swimmers did amazingly at the meet, and I am so incredibly proud of the entire SeaHawk "Duckie" division. :P
Anyway (back to my races, heh), when it came to the 50 breaststroke, my muscles were kind of stiff. But the stiffness was good, in my case, because I'm really not a sprinter. The stiffness made my body feel like it was a longer distance. I got 3 tenths of a second off my time: 39.37. I thought I was going to go insane, because the record is 39.33. My reaction was litterally: "YAY PB!" then "Aw, shit, I missed the record." LOL...
It goes without saying that the 100 free was a bad time... I didn't have my fastskin with me (it takes too long to change between events at these short meets). At this stage in my swimming, the fastskin really is the key to PBs (personal bests). Call me crazy, but that's how I feel. :P
SO, I got a hotdog and a donut as a reward, then we went out for shawarmas (the closest western equivalent I can think of would be 'Gyros', but comparatively, gyros suck monkey butt :P ). Ever since I got sick, I douse everything I eat with hot sauce. Weird, I know, but while I was sick my taste buds were messed up, so all I could taste was spicy. I even ate pudding and jello, and they tasted like cardboard. No fun.
And *knocking on wood* I'm still losing weight. For swimming, I know losing weight isn't really good, but I'm doing light training to rest my body, and therefore I am losing fat and not gaining much muscle. I'll start doing weight training to supplement the swimming next week.
I'm starting to plan for the Nationals coming up in May. I have to figure out the 10 events that I'll be swimming then, and start training for them. Especially if I'm going to be shooting for another High-Points Trophy this year. It'll be hard, because a bunch of the really good 14-year-olds just turned 15. Normally, I would have been asking myself if "a crippled swimmer like myself would ever have a chance against them" -- but now I know that if I could do what I did on Wednesday, then I'm not so "washed-out" after all. And I have the support of all my great friends on-line and off, as well as God's grace to thank.
Yeah, I'm a little emotional lately... *goofy grin* But I really have so much, and I just want everyone to know that I appreciate them. :)
For all you that prayed for me, talked about me, or even thought about me in passing, thanks! God bless!
Cheers,
Arassi