Race Report: Not So Fleet, But a Hardy Heart (Pools #784 and #785)

11 April 2026

I decided to really put my heart through its paces on Saturday, starting off with a 2,600 meter workout with my Masters team at the Barnet Copthall pool ...

... which featured a warmup set of 16 x 25 (where I started to ramp up the heart rate) before a main set of 9 x 100, 3 each on 1:35, 1:30, 1:25 where I held mostly 1:13/14s through the first six and then descended down to 1:08 on the last three. I then had enough time to have a great, if a bit abbreviated, breakfast with the team before I jumped on the tube and the train out to Fleet, to make my way to the Hart Leisure Centre for the Hart Swimming Club's 3rd Annual Masters competition:

My original route was to conclude with a bus ride from the Fleet Station to the leisure centre, but I managed to arrive early enough to enjoy a very leisurely ~3.75km walk, first through the charming downtown core to grab an excellent coffee and highly accurate quote ...

... and then winding my way as much as possible through the parks and park-like trails ...

... before arriving at this great facility which featured an eight lane, 25 meter competition pool (now pool #785) ...

... and a four lane 25 meter "training" pool (now pool #784) which, once the meet started, they lowered the floor and opened for continuous warmup and cool-down:

I planned a backstroke-heavy line-up, doing two events in each session. Given my largely dry January and February, I wasn't expecting much in terms of my times, but, after a semi-decent outing three weeks earlier (where I really only fully pushed one event), I set my mind on racing each event HARD to see what I could produce.

I did keep my heart rate monitor attached to my goggles and under my cap for all of my races, as I'm just trying to capture data to see how my heart acts. Here's how the racing went:

• 50 back - 32.15 versus

  • 30.01 Masters best from 2013

  • 32.02 My "UK best" from December 2024

  • Better than my 32.50 previous "Masters worst" from May 2024

  • Max HR = 145 BPM

• 200 back - 2:28.64 versus

  • 2:15.17 Masters best from 2013

  • 2:22.12 My "UK Best" from July 2024

  • Slower than my 2:26.46 previous "Masters worst" from the very first time I swam this as a Masters swimmer over two decades ago in 2005

  • Max HR = 157 BPM

  • I think my HR got so high because I was swimming next to British elite backstroker Jo Corben (who is only a few years younger than me) and it took everything I had on the last 50 to eek out a small victory over her. I checked out her time compared to the World Aquatics 2024 rankings (since 2025 aren't published yet) and she would have been first in the world by over three seconds in the women's 55-59 age group!

• 50 fly - 30.41 versus

  • 27.62 Masters best from 2010

  • 29.40 My "UK Best" from November 2025 (though that was technically swum in Canada)

  • Better than my 31.23 previous "Masters worst" from Guelph in 2019

  • Max HR = 144 BPM

• 100 back - 1:09.34 versus

  • 1:06.68 Masters best from 2013

  • 1:08.68 "UK Best" from September 2024

  • Better than my 1:14.91 previous "Masters worst" from my first meet after I moved in Canada in 2019

  • Max HR = 134 BPM

I was pleasantly surprised with all of the times, but probably happiest with the 100 backstroke ... even though I swam it like someone who

• doesn't know how to do a good backstroke start and

• has zero raw speed for correctly pacing a 100!

Beyond the fine pool and the great racing atmosphere, a big highlight was the announcer. She did a number of "Announcers Choice" awards such as:

• Giving everyone who swam the 200 fly an award

• Making the audience crack up when she gave out the first such award, saying, "And the first announcers choice award goes to (name withheld) for swimming a 200 free in the tightest jammer I have ever seen.” (I sure hope she knew him)

... and then reminding the swimmers who won randomly selected "Hot Heats" heat winner awards, "For Hot Heats heat winners, we have a variety of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages … but please don’t drink the alcoholic ones poolside** before your next race … you’re not allowed to do that!”

The day came to a most excellent and unexpected conclusion when the second session ran about 10 minutes ahead of schedule, so I made the earlier train to Waterloo and was home in bed a little after 10pm ... resting up for Sunday's team workout!

** I do think, though, I witnessed some swimmers in the viewing gallery taking her admonition at her words and quaffing their drinks in the stands because they were not, technically, poolside. Admittedly, they did look quite finished with racing!