Ill Concieved Plans Poorly executed

Surrey Summer Aquathon, Race 3

The third and last aquathon in the three race surrey summer aquathon series seemed to come round very quickly. Was it only a month since the last one? After the "one second affair" of last time I really wanted my time to be significantly different from last time, preferably faster but at least difference. I like to rally against consistency whenever I can as that path is lined with predictability and all its attendant devils.

It was a nice evening, the sun slowly sinking low in the sky as we milled round waiting for the start of the swim, no cold wind like last time. I was feeling quite good about this, I'd not been passed by anyone in the pool last time so I had my swim time right and I'd have clear water ion front of me. I started off quite happily but started to come undone at the end of the second length, I though I'd ducked under the lane rope but when I surfaced I was in the wrong lane going in the wrong direction. It was soon fixed but put me off my stroke a little. Half way up the next length I noticed that the person behind me seemed to be a little closer that the 25 second start gap. In fact she was moving at the speed of a small guided missile. She passed me at the half way point, where yet again I'd not managed to get under the lane rope at the first attempt. I was a little bit peeved at being passed. I had high hopes of getting to the end without this happening. She had taken 25 seconds by halfway, that's 50 seconds by the end; why do I start all these calculations when someone goes past? That means her swim time must be around 8 minutes and some seconds. There was something wrong here or my estimated 500 meter swim time was wildly inaccurate. If that was the case then I was winning on the lack of consistency front. I glanced at my watch as I left the pool to find I had done really quite well despite all the mental arithmetic and lane rope ducking.

After my usual inept transition I was off on the run. This time it felt good, it may have been because I've been running more regularly recently or my half hearted attempt at losing weight had paid off. Whatever it was it was working. Up ahead I saw speedy swimming woman and she was struggling. It was time to reclaim those seconds. Slowly I reeled her in. I was enjoying this. I passed her just before half way but resisted the urge to yell and whoop knowing that it might not be socially acceptable. Another quick glance at the watch and I thought it had all gone pear shaped. I was sure I was on for another "same time". Quickly I picked another target to aim at in the hope that it would give me the encouragement to go a bit quicker. It must have worked as I crossed the line in a personal best and distanced last months time by more that a minute.

Mr. Consistency no more!

500m swim/5k run - 31:02