3 December 2020
Holly Community Centre - Barrie - 25 meters
... is always easy to do when you do something for the first time! In my 45+ years as a competitive swimmer, I've never "raced" an 800 IM ... both because it is damn hard and because it's not an official event. Apparently, though, some swimmers like this in some Commonwealth countries as both the Australian Masters and Masters Swimming Ontario (MSO) keep records.
Continuing my efforts to knock out all events in MSO's Not-Quite-Nationals Virtual Challenge, I headed back to the Holly Community Centre primarily to swim the 800 IM, but also to work in two 'fun' 25s as part of my warmup:
25 kick with fins = done dolphin at 14.3 seconds using my Finis Zoomers
25 double arm backstroke - done awkwardly and slowly at 20.2 seconds
I had no clue what I could go in the 800 IM, but wanted to see if I could approach the MSO record for my age group of 11:03.42. I had my Garmin Swim 2 on my wrist as my "official" time, but propped by iPhone Pace Clock against my water bottle, so I could eye my splits. Very rough splits and very roughly swim, I was
Fly ~2:46
Back ~2:48
Breast ~3:05
Free ~2:25
... for a grand final time of 11:04.7. Close, but no Ontario record (even though it wouldn't have counted).
On the other hand, I crushed the down-under record of 11:49.3 ... maybe I need to convince my wife we need to move again!
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