I have to cover the state swim meet this week...

skippy,

I don't think you need to shave your body hair if you are covering the meet. Only if you are participating.

Hope that helps. Good luck. Sounds like you're really into it. That's a good start.

 

something i never understood about cross country, track, or swimming...it is who can do a repetitive motion the fastest.

what the hell do you say? the cop out of they practice and train so hard? as a fat former offensive lineman, i find it debateable who had to train harder, a fat guy doing condition at the end of a football practice or a rail-thin runner running.

in a story doesn't it boils down to, some kid picked em up and put em down (or the swimming equivalent) faster. here is the kid's time. here is a quote from the kid saying what a treat it is to get to or win state. here is a little interesting fact that the kid has asthma or one arm or sleeps with their eyes open. another quote about how original the kid is...like no other ever. the end.

 

Harry McNuckles was the winner in the 4x100 jerk off, beating Rosy Palm and Herman Phalange to the tape by a tenth of a second.
"I was really focused on what I had to do," said McNuckles, who competed without the aid of lubricant. "I was up agaisnt some stiff competition today, but I've been working on my repetitive motion skills."
Making the feat more amazing is the fact the McNuckles competes despite having asthma, just one arm and he also sleeps with his eyes open. ;D

 

Ugh, swimming. I got a call from a parent today telling me that I made a mistake in a story I compiled from the state meet this past weekend (way too much going on locally for me to make the trip). I printed out 76 pages worth of results on production day, then went down them all and looked for the handful of locals who placed in the finals, which were spread over two heats. At first I just went down the list, then midway through I realized that some of the top finishers in the second heat were posting better times than some in the first heat, so I went back and changed the results to reflect the times.

Which, naturally, is where I fucked up. Turns out in this state, if you finish eighth in the top heat of the finals, you're eighth even if everyone in the other heat beats you by 20 seconds. So I did a whole lot of work on deadline day just to take a boring compiled story and make it a boring INACCURATE compiled story.

I swear, there's times where I seriously wonder if I'm just too fucking stupid to live.

 

That's for the adult movie reviews ...

 

I don't mean to sound serious, and I do feel your pain, but write the hell out of that Olympic hopeful. In four, or eight, years, when people at bigger papers want to know about her, they'll read your clips. That could mean advancement.

 

This will be my fifth year going to PA states, which is held at the state-of-the-art facility at Bucknell. Beats the hell out of the airplane hanger at Penn State. People at Bucknell are just a whole lot nicer, too.
Anyway, Bucknell actually feeds the media each day. The first time that happened a couple years ago the PIAA rep came into the media room and almost fainted. She recovered when we told her the food was from the school. When it was at PSU, media types sometimes raided the officials' lunch room and grabbed a leftover box lunch when the crew went to the pool deck for the finals.
Needless to say, swimming writers across the state cheered when the PIAA announced two mores years at Bucknell, while many swimming coaches were pissed.

 

There really is more to swimming or running than repetitive motion. Hey, at least when a swimmer's in the pool, there aren't any timeouts so coaches can rehash a strategy or constantly be in his players' ears. Besides, can anyone complete this sentence? "Because McNabb was nursing an injury, Jeff Garcia got more ______ with the first-team offense."

And it's not like they go in the pool or on the track, run/swim a steady pace for a mile, and call it a day. There's a race within the race, and as much technique as a D-lineman trying to get around another fat dude.

 

and speeding up your repetitive motion or slowing it down is comparable to running the counter boot how?

i suppose that maybe a swimmer could strategize 'cramps' or 'yell shark' or something. then when everyone looks, you go balls out to the finish? maybe that is close to being comparable to the counter boot.

 

yeah, the whole "a lotta people would love to have your job" schtick is getting a little old.

nobody, even the parents, wants to be in that place for six hours.

 

if you can't cover that sonuvabitch in person in less than an hour and make a story and a sidebar sing, i'd be truly dissappointed.