400 free, spring of 1989 at CAMO during the Long Course Interprovincial meet to select the 8-Nations tour National team. I was 16 years old.
I remember feeling really proud to be on the Youth Provincial team for this meet. I didn’t really think I had a shot at making the national team, so it wasn’t really part of my concern.
For this meet, swimmers from outside Montreal were hosted by local swimming families. I can’t remember the name of the swimmer who hosted my self and several other swimmers on the team, but I do remember waking up that morning and the car ride to the pool.
I had a Walkman, the Sony WM- F75, and had the first part of Orion from Metallica, recorded at the start of the tape and at the end of the other side. This way, by using the auto-reverse, I could listen to my song continuously for hours on end.
I would also continuously repeat to my self like a mantra: “I’m the best”.
In the car on the way to the pool, I was listening to my song and repeating my mantra. I was looking out the window without letting anything catch my attention, which was helping me slow down my thinking, internal chatter.
The Quebec team had a huge board on deck, which listed all the events of the meet and for each event there were 3 spots to put a sticker when winning a medal. I really wanted a shot at putting a sticker on the board.
I didn’t know the other guys in my heat well, and didn’t know how good they were, but all I cared was to swim my race being as ruthless as possible with myself and my competitors. I might not win or put a sticker on the board, but I sure will give it my best ever.
I remember that by that time I stepped on the block; I was already far into the zone. The lighting was different, almost brighter and kind of hazy, sounds seemed to be coming from afar and I had tunnel vision, I could only see what was directly in front of me.
I knew I was in the perfect state of mind to race my best, but I kept that knowledge in the background as what I was about to do was more important to me than having succeeded in getting in the zone.
I wasn’t thinking with words the way I normally do, I was instead listening to a flow of data/perceptions without any judgement. So my head felt quiet, at peace with none or very little chatter.
At that time, we still had the 3 false starts rule. The guy in lane 3 or 4, false started, and everyone went in.
Somehow, it was like I could hear telepathically what was going on for the other guys in my heat, particularly the guys in lanes 3-4-5. I was in lane 7. My feelings told me that, the guy that had false started, was simply trying to throw everyone off their game to gain an advantage. (Steven Baird, Frank Samel were amongst my competitors.)
We got ready for the second start and the same guy false started again, but this time I remained on the block, giggling inside of myself, knowing that his attempts will not work with me.
Finally, the race started and there isn’t much I can remember during that race. It felt like it went much faster than the 4:09.80 it took me. It’s like some parts of the race were fast forwarded which left me wondering where I had been during these parts of the race.
I ended up 3rd and qualifying for my first Senior National time. I had taken about 10 seconds of my previous best time.
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