Childhood Memories

My sister’s family and my parents went to Italy with “The Kids”. They sent me a couple of pictures and this one to the left is my absolute favorite. It shows what my family is up to. My mom is an offroad runner and supports me doing my triathlons. Looks like she is setting the foundation for Sara Mia and Elisa to become good swimmers. Thanks Mom!! I’ll do the rest of the coaching in a few years! My sister and her husband Gerard are pretty cool. I like them a lot and I miss them. I miss The Kids, too.
My parents took us (my sister Michaela and me) to Italy every year until we were about 6 years old. I have vivid memories of that time. I could write pages about them right now, but will limit it to one. Whenever you went to the supermarket to by stuff (we usually bought Italian white bread, broshuto, salami, jam and juice) you got a Gracie-sticker. When you had a certain amount of stickers, you got a blow-up water ball. I got the nicest one, with some sort of Little Kitty on it, it was white and pink and just very nicely painted. One day it was windy, I was in the ocean playing and the ball took off. I was about 4. (I now wonder where my ‘guardians’ were. Swimming in the ocean with 4?) Anyways, I ran back to the beach crying. Our beach towel neighbors sun (at this time around 11 maybe) tried to chase after the ball but no luck. Sure I got another ball, but not that nice one as they ran out of those. Coming back home from the vacation, I wanted to get into a swim club, because next time I wanted to get my ball back myself. I was angry for a couple of days, because this neighbor’s boy claimed he is a good fast swimmer, his parents telling me he was Freischwimmer (‘Free Swimmer’) certified. That did NOT impress me at all. At age 4 I was Freischwimmer. You can become “Freischwimmer” certified when you go to the lifeguard at the pool and swim 50 yards without stopping. You then receive a Freischwimmer iron-on that you can put on your swim suit.

Last Sunday I raced in the first swim of the North Shore Swim Series, from Sunset Beach to Pipeline. In the summer, the North Shore is the nicest place to swim and snorkel. The ocean is calm like a lake and the visibility goes 30 ft and more. It is incredible. At the same location in winter time, the North Shore becomes the Big Wave Surfer's paradise with waves up to 30 ft (Hawaiian measures).
The swim race was a good excuse to drive to the other side of the island. I did not pay the entry fee, as I was showing up late. (Thanks to my friend Don Eovino, for giving me the T-shirt. The T-shirt was part of why I wanted to race, awesome cool looking t-shirt this time!)
So I showed up late, because I had a hard time getting out of bed and I did not taper either. In fact I was at the end of a 3 week high quality training block. In other words, I was “nicely fatigued”. It was part of my plan to show up at the race, just to make sure I have people around me that would push me, which would give me another good hard effort swim before going into recovery week. The women started first, with men starting 5 minutes later. It was the first time they started the women first with the reason that last year, the women over-swam the men. I was skeptical at first. It means less chances to draft, but also better chances not to have to swim over 70% of the guys. As the starting gun went off, I was in 2nd place, holding the position for about 15 minutes. Two girls of the age of maybe 17 or 18 zoomed in and got in front of me. I worked with one of the girls, because I thought her swim suit looked good and because I did not “race”- race. I thought I work with her to keep her in the front. That was a good experience, as usually I don’t “teamwork” like that when racing. But those teenagers are impressive for sure! They don’t kick hard or hardly do any kicking. Their body position is awesome; they just glide through the water with no effort at all. Very inspiring to see them swim. Swimming efficient by reducing drag is called streamlining, which I teach my athletes during Swim Analysis. After a while I looked up and checked where all the people are. I was in 4th position and no one else was in sight, but a big crowd about 25 yards behind us. That was a big surprise. I mean, those athletes are pure swimmers and last year I was somewhere in 10th place or so. I finished “unofficially in 4th place. Sweet. Having no expectations when racing is great!