My First Race

I had quite the interesting first race in a long swimming career. I swam from age 5... the summer before starting kindergarten... though my senior year of college at East Stroudsburg University. I also have done some masters meets as an adult. I tell the kids I coach that we all have to start somewhere, and even the Olympians like Phelps were beginners once, and we all do something to get ourselves DQed at some point. My first race went something like that...

My dad was coaching and managing Woodridge at the time and I was a little pool rat who finally was able to join the swim team. Overlook Relays were coming up and my dad needed an 8 and under girl to complete a relay, so I got to make my competition debut at that meet. I remember getting a team suit at the meet and that's about it... I don't even remember the race itself (Did I block it out of my memory out of embarrassment? Haha! IDK... I was 5!) so I'm going on what people who witnessed it said. My teammate was swimming down the pool and people around me must have been saying "Go Jillian!" and I guess I thought they literally meant "GO!" because... I went! Dove in and swim past my teammate. Yep, I DQed my relay on my first-ever swim. At least I showed up for my relay... ask my sister, Kendall, sometime how she made our other sister Sarah, and the rest of their relay not be able to swim because she was nowhere to be found (both were 8 & unders at the time). But that's her story... you only get to hear mine!  :)

-Coach Jillian Almoney

My dad and me