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Hi again

Well I have had the most awesome time. Seattle is beautiful. We had a great time relaxing and acclimatising (the weather was beautiful, it only rained every second day), and just getting used to the time change AND training – but not too hard :).

We did a bit of shopping and saw a few of the local sights. One place we saw was called the Space Needle. It is a huge building 520 feet high and apparently the view from the observation deck at the top is supposed to be magnificent – unfortunately we ran out of time and didn’t get to go to it, just saw it as we passed by.

We caught the ferry from Seattle to Vancouver Island and that trip took about 3 hours. It was a bit rough on the way over and we weren’t allowed to have any of our own comfort items like books and pillows, due to the strict safety measures in America at the present time, so it was good when that trip was finally over. The beautiful hotel we stayed in while we were in Canada was just near the ferry terminals so there wasn’t much travelling to do once we arrived in Victoria BC and the pool was only 20 minutes away by bus. The view out of the window from my room in the hotel was awesome and the weather was beautiful, so that made it a pleasant place to be.

The Pan Pacific Championships were held at the Saanich Commonwealth Place – Aquatic Centre. It wasn’t an outdoor pool like I had hoped but it was a nice pool anyway.

I swam in the 200 butterfly on the first day. Probably the swim I have been training for the most over the last 12 months (since the Montreal debacle). Well it all paid off and I swam an awesome swim and broke the World Record! It’s mine (for now) and I am very, very happy with my swim and the result.

I had the second day off. I had been up so late that first night with media interviews etc., it was great to sleep-in the next morning and just relax all day (although I had to go training in the afternoon). The third day I swam in the 100 butterfly. It was another good swim – not a personal best time but a championship record and another Gold – so I was very happy with that swim too.

The fourth (and last) day was the 4 x 100 medley relay. I was the only ‘original’ Australian team member from the Commonwealth Games but that was okay because Fran (backstroke), Sarah (breaststroke), Melanie (freestyle) and me doing the butterfly won a Bronze medal for our efforts.

I came straight from Canada to Los Angeles then to Sydney then to Hobart all in 24 hours (Wednesday) so I was really tired and needed sleep badly. I only had one day to get over it (Thursday) and then the Australian Short Course Championships started up on Friday so it probably wasn’t the best conditions to race under - and it was freezing. (I knew it would be).

It probably would have been better for me to give the Short Course a miss but I wanted to be there with the rest of the swimmers from my Club who had come down from Brisbane (not all of them went to Canada) and we wanted to be there as a team.

The 200 fly on the first night was probably the last good swim I had in me. It was a .26 second PB and only .38 off the world short course record but that was the best I could do.

It was all down hill from there. I started to get sick and I was so tired and by the last day when I had my 100 butterfly all I wanted to do was come home, and the results showed it. No PB and a silver medal. Oh well, maybe next time.

Before I left to go overseas I had a great time at a luncheon in the city with a few people from the Fuji Xerox team as well as some other guests. It’s good to meet new people and meet up with others I’ve met before. I also squeezed in another visit to Lang Park but the Broncos lost AGAIN so that was sad.

I’ve been home for 9 days now and sadly I’m nearly at the end of a mini break my coach has given me. I’ve been pretty busy since I got home. I’ve been to the doctor to get all medicated up, I’ve done another Club sign-on appearance, been to a 21st birthday celebration, filmed another episode on another children’s television show & I’ve even been back to work.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned my job – I work at Swimming Queensland. It is a great job and the people I work with are wonderful. I do mostly office work – phone, emails, mail outs, filing, stocktaking etc and it is all great experience for me as I had no work experience at all before I started there PLUS they are so understanding when it comes to me having to go away to compete. I was away for most of August and when I came back last week they welcomed me back with big smiles. It’s such a great place to work. I consider myself very lucky.

My next biggest event is the trials for the World Championships. These will be held in Brisbane this year, so that’s good for me, no interstate travelling. The actual World Championships are in March in Melbourne. I’m really looking forward to them because I had the best time at the last ones in Montreal in 2005 so I would hope I would have an even more successful and positive time seeing it’s in my home country.

Oh well that’s it for this time…Thanks for everything

Bye for now

Jess :)