Surrey Summer Aquathon
Series
Race 1
I've discovered that there is an aquathon race series
that runs on the first Friday of each month from just
opposite from where I work. It would have been rude not
to enter. It's a 500 meter swim in a 50 metre pool zigzag
style followed by a 5 kilometre run. It sounded just the
thing to wind down for the weekend.
This Friday was the day that the M25 closed causing
gridlock and delaying the start of the race. There seemed
to be a huge vista of waiting to be done as people
arrived in dribs and drabs with tails of torture by
combustion engine. It seemed a little odd signing in for
a multi sport event and not having the bike with me but I
soon got over that and got settled in to wait for the
swim start. Luckily it was a warm evening and part of the
pool was set aside for "warming up", however by
the time I started I was a tad cold.
The last words I heard from the pool side were
"right now we are going to speed things up". At
this point I knew that the combination of an optimistic
estimated swim time and some speedy looking swimmers was
going to mean me being overtaken lots. It didn't help
that I seemed to have gained a tendency to swim into the
lane ropes and get my watch caught. I knew there was a
reason I never usually swam wearing a watch. I wasn't too
happy with the swim. Imagine my surprise when I glanced
at my watch to see that it had taken 8:30.
After my usual glacial transition I was off on the
run. It was an out and back round the local park, the
fist section being cruelly up hill. A quick time check,
8:34, it was then that I realised that I'd been looking
at the time and not the stop watch, so much for a
blinding swim split.
Since running the marathon a month ago I've not even
put on my running shoes let alone put on foot in front of
another in a speedy fashion. I'd hoped that the fitness
gained would have hung around a bit; it seems that it did
but indulged its self in vast quantities of burgers and
fries. The run wasn't up to my usual saunter but at least
there were people slightly slower than me out there.
Well there you go one down two to go, it can only get
better?
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