Lessons learnt from our first week long sports event

Today was day 4 out of the 5 day gala. Cameron and I are both a bit weary, me more so than him. Apart from the brief moment on Monday, he has had a good gala and has really enjoyed being here and competing. It has been 4 long days of sitting next to the pool waiting, watching for a few minutes (or seconds as the case may be) and then more waiting.

It is our first long sports event, our galas are usually 2-3 days at home, and it is also our first out of town event. We will definitely be back next year. Cameron will be the right age then and have a whole extra year of training under his belt and it has been fun. We will be a little bit wiser though and have learnt a few things about these longer sports event that may come in useful to those of you whose kids are sporty.

This week I have learnt….

Swimming events are disorganised! Officials aren’t arranged before hand, equipment is old and often fails. I don’t think any gala we have attended has actually started on time. This gala was no different and it can be very frustrating. (So it is not just soccer that is disorganised.)

We need to invest in proper camping chairs. Pool stands are hard and often there aren’t enough so camping chairs are vital. This isn’t really just relevant to swimming, whatever sport your child is doing chances are strong camping chairs will come in handy.

Pack your own food! The food available at these events is unhealthy, expensive and often not even nice. I was pretty well organised in that department. Before we left home I packed daily snack packs for both Cameron and I and then took along a salad and some fruit daily. I am glad I did this because all they had was chip n dip and pancakes!

Take along stuff for YOU to do. Today Cameron swam one event, it was 34 seconds long! We sat next to the pool for 3 hours! It gets VERY boring. The kids aren’t “racing” during the heats so watching gets boring after a while. The kids have each other so they seldom get bored but I got bored. Most days I did take my laptop, iPad and book along but my connectivity was an issue.

Make a friend. This one is a little tough for me, purely because I am not comfortable in these sorts of situations and tend to stick to myself but having someone who knows how things work (or at least who doesn’t know with you) makes life a lot easier.

Stay somewhere close! We are staying with family and are pretty close to the pool but I heard a mom from another club say she was over an hour away! That’s too far to be travelling in and out every day, especially if your child makes the final because then you are potentially at the pool until 20h00/21h00 depending on the start time and amount of events for the day! Find somewhere close, it makes life a lot easier.

It has been a long week but Cameron has learnt a lot, I have learnt a lot and we have had some nice one-on-one time! Both of us are excited for what next year holds for us, now that we are a little wiser.