Race Report: Aquathon #5

Not much pre-race activity, so we'll get right to the action.

SWIM
Previous races required dolphin dives out about 100 yards out before you could swim comfortably. With the record 15 inches of rain in August, the lake was really high. Now it was a short run and a dive to get swimming; much more my style. Another twist was the crowd at the front. Normally it's me and one other leading the pack. Tonight there were four total. I followed the feet of probably the most crooked swimmer ever. So much so I couldn't figure out if he was doing it purpose. After the half way point, I gave up following and took the lead. There were still four of us in front. Around the final turn, I lengthened my stroke and noticed the others falling behind. For the third time in four races, I was first out of the water. But this time, it was my slowest time yet at 11:26.

RUN
The other three who finished with me took off leaving me behind. I kept my pace purposely slow to see if I wouldn't die as bad as the last race. I felt good about three-quarters into the first mile, so I turned it up. I still got passed, but there were a lot more women among those flying by. At the turn, I saw two men among the women, and set a goal to hold them off as long as possible. I held them off until the lone hill on the course, about a half mile from the finish and felt good about that. I finished with a surprisingly slow split of 23:50. I felt faster than that.

EPILOGUE
I finished sixteenth overall and third in my age group for this race. According to my stats, that gives me enough series points to earn second place for my age group. It didn't help that I really fell out of shape through July and put on about ten pounds. But, there's a wall in front of me. I kind of scratched at it tonight, but there's a lot of work left to do to break through. I feel like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption. I just discovered that the wall is giving way, but there's a twenty more feet to dig through. Then there's the matter of climbing through the sewer to put it all together.

[Thanks to Karl for the great shots.]