H2Out Philly Fins Swim Meet

I set foot on Swarthmore College for the first time on 13-OCT-2012 for the H2Out Philly Fins Swim Meet. As I was looking for the pool, I came across a nice 400m indoors track and wished I had my track cleats with me!

The pool was a lot nicer than what I'm used to at practices. Water temperature was slightly cold, which was perfect for a meet. I warmed up for about 500 yards and even practiced a few starts.

The Controversial Relay
 I did not sign up for any relays. Relays in general stress me out, and I wanted to focus on my individual events. However, my friend Linda from Colonial 1776 told me on deck that she and her friend Joan were looking for 2 more people to form a relay team. They really wanted to do a relay, and Joan was 81 years old, so I couldn't say no. We found the 4th swimmer, Christopher, and the team was set. Once my Fins coach heard that I was forming a relay with another team, he was not pleased. He told my partner to tell me that I couldn't swim the relay. I talked to the meet director and told him that we were ok being disqualified and we only wanted a fun swim. The meet director let us swim

Christopher swam the 50 back. Joan needed help to get on the starting block. Once she was on the block, she was in control, and she had better timing and better dive than me. Linda started from the pool, and had beautiful butterfly leg. I never saw Linda swim before so I waited for her to touch before I dived off the block. By the time Linda came in, other relay teams had  already completed their 200. I felt relaxed knowing that our team had already come in last. My dive was good for me as I didn't hurt my chest and my googles stay put. My streamline was good. My strokes were fast. My open turn was without any issues. I had one of the best 50 free that I ever swam. Our team stayed in the water for a photo shoot under the officials kicked us out! Linda named our team "Team World Record".













The Individual Events

I signed up for the 100 breast and the 500 free events. My favorite 200 breast was not offered.

Breaststrokes come naturally to me. It's almost as fast as my freestyle stroke. The 100 SCY breast would be an all-out sprint for me. My dive was not a disaster. My pullout was good. My push/pull rhythm was in synch. Everything was clicking. It was also nice that a teammate whom I knew was slightly faster than me, was swimming next to my lane. Looking over helped with my pacing. My time of 1:32:15 was a personal best.





My hands looked to be too wide here.



The 500 SCY freestyle was a new event for me. I recently got into long distance free. Completed many in practices but never at a meet. I wanted even pacing, and broke the 500 down to 200 pace, 200 pace, and 100 fast.

I'm not sure what my official time was, but I think it was around 8:30.



Update: My 500 SCY official time was 8:22.04, and here are the splits:
43.50  

46.85

50.79   

51.76   

52.32   

51.74   

55.38   

50.98  

52.16   

46.56

Blues Cruise 50k

It was a fun run, and it was also a 50k trail run, Blues Cruise.

Course: Mostly narrow trails with many hills.
Race plan: Stay in Zone 2 heart rate. Steady and even pace. Run up small hills and walk big hills.
Condition: Ideal! 46F at start and went up to the low 50s. Partly cloudy and not humid at all.

How I did:
I started out slow, around 11 minute/mile pace even during flat sections. My heart rate was already too high and I wanted to stay in zone 2 (126 to 143 beats per minute for me). I listened to music from my earbuds for 70% of the race. I carried water in a Camelpak and hydrated well. I ate a honey waffle every hour, and took 2 salt tablets every hour as well.

Mid-way, my time was 2:55, which was already about 10 to 20 minutes slower than I had predicted. I was right at my target heart rate so I didn't need to adjust my pace. I started to pass many runners who had slowed down or taken long breaks at aid stations. I was able to hold my pace to the finish.

My time of 5:45 was slower than my Dirty German 50k last year, but it was about 30 minutes faster than my previous Blues Cruise 50k run a few years ago. Blues Cruise was definitely not a cruise. There were many more hills than I remembered! I felt humbled walking up hills with my hands holding my quads!

I felt exhausted for the rest of the day but I wasn't in pain. I ran 8 miles the next day at 8 minute pace!

Here is my run data:












This kid, Jason,asked me if I was in his age group. He's 23.









She and I ran together for about 5 miles