Saturday, November 21, 2009

Eye of the Tiger

Today Madison participated in her very first swim meet! Up by 7am, she rushed through breakfast, jumped into her swim gear and then hurried out the door to get to warm-ups by 8am. "Warm-ups" consisted of diving into a freezing pool - on a Saturday - at 8am! That alone takes determination and willpower!
~ Madi getting her Swim Belton swim cap on.
"Mommy, Stop"...as she giggles

The swim meet was held at the Temple High School Swim Center in Temple, Texas. This is a picture of their facility. Because I have so many pictures to attach to this post, I attached each picture at medium size instead of large but, I hope you are still able to see the place. Jack and I thought it was nice.

~Madi, about thirty minutes before her first event. She was very nervous and full of anticipation. But, that nervousness and anticipation didn't hold her back! That took a lot of courage.

~Here's Madi walking up to her platform for her first event which was the girls' 50m freestyle.

~Madi on the starting block

~Madi finished in 2nd out of 8 girls in her heat! How awesome is that!?

She was still nervous after the first event was over, as you can see in this picture. But, when we (Jack and I, Mom and Dad Johnston and my sister, Virginia) cheered and told her what place she made, the nervousness was gone and the passion to compete kicked in! She was ready to go again!

~ Madi getting ready for her 2nd event - the girls' 50m backstroke.

~Madi came in 3rd in her heat in the backstroke. Again, pretty awesome!

~Looking to see her place and time.

~Madi just after her second event.

~Madi getting dried off and dressed at the end of the competition

Dressed and ready for an early lunch!

We went to Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast for Jack and I and an early lunch for Madi. Look at my two favs, they even dress alike!

We are so proud of Madison and how well she handled her first competition! As we expected, the seed has been planted and she is already looking forward to her next competition. SO, expect many more swim stories, photos and bragging from a proud mommy & daddy in the future!