That time it Monsooned at League Championships

So I did pay attention to the forecast for Friday and Saturday which was Celia's swim league championships.  Friday at first seemed like the worst day.  When we woke up it was pouring, just drenching, soaking rain.  They moved warm ups to 7:15 vs 7:00 so that was nice and by the time we go to the pool it had stopped raining and the sun eventually came out and then it was HOT.   This is a 2 day morning and evening meet.  Audrey hung out with me at the meet for morning and evening.  Luckily Pete did make it for a good part of the evening sessions.

5th place in Breast stroke

Celia hung in there.  This was a new experience for her and the weather really did not make it easier.  It rained a little bit in between sessions on Friday however nothing big and it really was an okay day.  The best part of it was that Celia placed 9th in freestyle (received a ribbon) and 5th in breast (a medal).  That was very exciting.   The meet was fun.  There were some awesome races.

Then Saturday came.  I thought Sat was the better day.  Umm…. Not so much.  The morning session was not awful, hot, but we made it through and Celia's relay team did awesome.  Celia also swam backstroke but she did not make it to finals, which was perfectly okay.  So onto the evening session.  It monsooned in between the morning and evening sessions.  By the time 3:00 rolled around and it was time to go for warm ups it was not raining.  I was hopeful.   Warm ups were completed and then it started to rain again.  There is an award ceremony prior to the start of the evening finals and one of those awards is my father's sportsmanship award.  My Mom, Celia, and I helped hand out that award.  But by that point it was hard to hear or see due to the pouring rain.   There had been no thunder so the meet went on.  My mom left because it was MONSOONING and I joined some very nice Mom's to ride out the meet.  I told Pete to forget it.

Poor Celia tried to keep warm and dry.  At one point I looked at the sky and just told her, go pack up all your stuff and be ready to leave.  "Why Mom?"  Because it is going to thunder and a few minutes later, we were told to go to our cars.

riding out the thunder

League champs do not get rescheduled.  We waited the appropriate time and then even though it was still pouring, we wondered back into the pool and proceeded with the events.  I left Celia and attempted to see if my car would make it out of the parking lot.  You see everyone parked in the grass and it was now mud.  With some luck, some help from two people pushing my car, I made it out.  I then parked in a nearby neighborhood.  As I walked back, at least 5 cars were attempting to get out and they were very stuck.  It was quite the scene.

I made it back into the pool area and Celia and I hung out until it was time for her to swim.  She did a strong freestyle and her teammates did an amazing job.  They earned their 4th place medal in the rain…

Thank you to all those coaches that stood there soaked.  Everyone did an amazing job and it was a memory making event.  I actually had a great time and Celia will remember the time she swam in a monsoon.  Audrey will remember the food.