It has been a while since last time I was able to post. My excuse if there is any, is that I have been trying to recreate the last few weeks of my summer. It started with the meet I previously announced in Canada, followed by a training camp in California and a short trip to Miami….  

Canada….

It is always challenging for me to compete in Canada, the reasons are not many: Getting out of the comfort of competing in the US where I am familiar with environment of competitions. I always complain for weeks before the race. I decided to start this trip with a better attitude, but still hesitant about what was about to come. The city chosen for this race was Gatineau that shares geographic border with Ottawa, where our hotel was located. The first morning we drove to the pool, I truly enjoyed the ride; the view was beautiful, the river, the bridges and the parliament building, my perspective of the trip started to improve as I was enjoying the city.

The pool was the highlight of the trip; the building epitomized all the theory I learned in school, the materials used, its structure and form were in harmony to create a great modern building. It was not designed by an internationally acclaimed architect instead was created by a local firm from Gatineau, which made it even more valuable to me. The building is the house of many sports and serves as a community center. During this week it was manly dedicated to our competition. Every competition day was not a struggle since I was enjoying this place so much; the lighting, colors, setting, and even the spectators had a very special place in the venue. My swims were good; specially breaststroke where I was able to improve my best time in the 100 and the 200 by 3 seconds. Free style, was not a best time, but it was faster than my last competition. Backstroke, it is always a challenge!!! During this race I was not able to improve, but there is more to come. I have been practicing it more we will see what the result is in Santa Clara, California where my next competition will take place, from October 30-September 2.   

Canadian Parliament Building 

Pool building entrance 

Pool