Race Report: Tenths in Toronto

27 April 2025

I came from away to come back home to race.

Well, technically, I came to Toronto to work, but then tacked on a weekend to race.

Arriving on Easter Sunday, I spent the ensuing week criss-crossing the GTA from the heart of the downtown tech district to as far west as Burlington for meetings with clients, business partners and my team. It was a very busy, but engaging week of work, with full days and evening events every night except one. Athletically, my work commitments weren't ideally suited for a taper meet, but you go with what you got.

I stayed out in the western part of Oakville during the week, primarily because the hotel met my company's low, low nightly room rate maximum, but this also provided decent access to clients spread between Burlington and Mississauga. As an added bonus, the location also gave me the opportunity to check out two different LA Fitness locations in Burlington. My wife and I have a longer-term plan to move to Burlington in retirement and, having had a great experience training at LA Fitness during the almost five years I lived in the "GBA" (Greater Barrie Area), I got trial passes to both the Burlington Brant (#733) and Burlington Appleby (#734) locations. I didn't expect much more than standard LA Fitness pools and that's what I got; but they were perfect places to use for early morning taper swims, especially as each location had a hot tub, something my Barrie Cundles location lacked ...

(LA Fitness Burlington Brant, #733, on left and LA Fitness Burlington Appleby, #734, on right)

... until Friday when I showed up to the Appleby location (a slightly nicer pool if only for the more generous windows and tighter lane ropes) to find the pool closed due to a chemical imbalance.

Fortunately, having swum around many of the pools in the area, I pivoted and dropped in at the Oakville Trafalgar pool (#707) lane swimming session. When I had swum there last November, I had found an informal, "unincorporated" masters group, with an excptionally welcoming guy, Phil, calling out sets from one of the two fast lanes. Incredibly, he remembered me and welcomed me with this introduction to my lanemates for the day, "This is Patrick. He doesn't look like much, but he's fast."

And then I probably proceeded to make him look mistaken as I loafed my way through only 1,200 meters (I rarely do more than that the day before a taper meet).

Before I go on and on to a level of swimming detail that no one but me cares about (if anyone has actually read this far), the best part of the weekend was outside of the pool: my youngest daughter, Zara, took the train down from Carleton University in Ottawa to spend the weekend with me. We had a great dinners and chats on Friday and Sunday nights, but even more fun on Saturday night with:

• Excellent tacos at the best Mexican restaurant (yes they exist) in Toronto - Campechano Adelaide

• A laugh & cry & celebration of Canadian goodwill watching Come From Away. This muscial remains my favorite for a variety of reasons. First, it hits close to home as I was in New Jersey (but not NYC) on 9/11 and stranded on the east coast (with all the same emotions but with nowhere near the hardship) in the days that followed. Second, because this was the first musical my wife, second daughter and I saw after I had immigrated to Canada in late 2018 to start my path to becoming a citizen and it's an excellent encapsulation of all that is great about the Canadian spirit. And, finally, because it is just an excellent piece of art, with a cast that is constantly rotating between different characters, storylines and scenes. See it if you haven't.

Work commitments prevented me from making it to the Friday sessions of the Swim Ontario Provincial Championships at the excellent 10 lane, 50-meter Markham Pan Am Centre, pool #405 on my #1001Pools quest, but I showed up Saturday morning with a smile, shaved down and with a brand new Arena tech suit (more on that later), ready to go!

I have had the good fortune of training once in this pool (built in 2014 for the 2015 Pan AM games along with the even nicer companion Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, #216) and most recently raced here in February 2020, my last competition before the world (and pools) closed down for the COVID pandemic.

Here's how the racing went, with one event Saturday morning, and three on Sunday:

400 free

• Masters Best – 4:19.70 (2005, age 38)

• 50+ Best – 4:28.43 (2022, age 55)

• UK Best – 4:32.12 (Birmingham, March 2024)

• Canadian Masters National Record - 4:26.81

• Result – 4:27.19

• Reaction

  • To begin with, I spaced out and almost missed this race. I was there. I was standing on the bulkhead all ready to go, but I completely blanked on hearing the whistle to get on the blocks. I was in lane 8 and the guy in lane 9 didn't show, but I had my back to the starter, so I didn't see all of the other guys get on the blocks. I didn't realize this until the starter said "Take Your Marks!" I tried to scramble onto the blocks, but, fortunately for me, the starter stood every up and down and gave me a second chance.

  • You'd think after 50+ years of racing, I'd get this small thing right!

  • What my racing experience did allow me to do was quickly clear my head and to execute my race strategy well, aiming to control the first 50 and then to lock in a sub-34 pace for the rest of the race.

  • While I felt great, it was hard to tell how fast I was actually going as guys were all over the place with their swims relative to their entry times. I guess I was a bit guilty of that, as well, as I entered my 4:32.12, the fastest time I've been since moving to England and I ended up almost five seconds faster.

  • The only part of my race I was less than thrilled with was my closing speed - I tried to go to my legs over the last 75, but didn't get much extra power, only a lot of my quads and hamstrings screaming at me.

  • Still, when I compare my splits from this race versus my previous best from the 2022 Canadian Masters Nationals, I actually made up most of my time drop on the second 200:

    • 2022 - 2:11.72 / 2:16.71

    • 2025 - 2:11.52 / 2:15.62

  • But, of course, I wish I had had a four-tenths faster split on the last 50 as the National Record was oh-so-close.

100 IM

• Masters Best – 1:02.91 (2013, age 46)

• 50+ Best – 1:06.03 (2022, age 55)

• UK Best – 1:07.45 (Birmingham, March 2024)

• Canadian Masters National Record - 1:03.58 (the world in which I set a 100 IM National Record likely never exists)

• Result – 1:07.00

• Reaction – I always intended this as a warmup race for the 400 IM, something to blow the cobwebs out on Sunday morning. But, I secretly thought I could get back under my 50+ best time. You see, my 100 fly and 100 IM time, when tapered and shaved, are almost always within tenths of each other. Back in February, I had a perfect 100 fly at the Hemel Hempstead meet where I went 1:04.98, so I thought a 1:05+ was in me. Everything about this swim felt fine enough except the breaststroke and I was mildly pleased with the time ... until the last heat went off and another guy in my age group just snuck under me with a 1:06.99 for the age group win.

400 IM

• Masters Best – 4:46.48 (2013, age 46)

• 50+ Best – 5:02.05 (2017, age 50)

• UK Best – 5:06.48 (Barnet, July 2024)

• Canadian Masters National Record - 5:02.33 (I set this at the 2022 Canadian Masters Nationals)

• Result – 5:02.46

• Reaction –

  • I really haven't swum a great 400 SCM IM in almost a decade. In my 40s, I could reliably and easily get under five minutes. Back in 2016, at the ripe old age of 49, I went a 4:52.09. But, since turning 50, I have been hovering right around 5:02 - with my taper & shaved efforts being 5:02.05, 5:02.33, 5:02.37 and now this 5:02.46.

  • But, I am probably the most happy I've ever been with going essentially the same time again. Until I moved to the UK, I have almost always trained for the 400 IM (with occasional seasons focused on distance freestyle), believing that a training program grounded in this event prepared me to race pretty much anything except the 1500 free. Since I turned my training attention back to pool racing after last summer's Lake Windermere crossing, I have been almost exclusively focused on freestyle training for the 400/800, with little to no consistent IM training.

  • To be right on my 50+ best was uplifting ... even though I would have liked a couple of tenths faster to break my own National Record.

  • Comparing my splits from 2022 ...

    • 2022 - 1:08.45, 1:15.22, 1:27.53, 1:11.13

    • 2025 - 1:10.19, 1:14.90,1:28.85, 1:08.52

    • ... makes me feel I was out a bit too slow on the fly and, like the 100 IM, served as a reminder that I need to do more breaststroke work.

  • With that said, I still think I have one more sub-5:00 race in me. I'm keeping my freestyle focus for my summer long course racing, but will definitely return to a 400 IM orientation as I approach aging up in a couple of years.

800 free

• Masters Best – 8:57.63 (2011, age 44)

• 50+ Best – 9:23.19 (2025, age 57)

• UK Best – 9:23.19 (Coventry, March 2025)

• Canadian Masters National Record - 9:16.68

• Result – 9:17.18

• Reaction –

• My mistake behind the blocks of the 400 free was all on me. The mistakes in this race were all out of my control ... but my mental reserves were strong enough to handle them.

• Fail #1 - Pre-race blowout: this was the first event of the afternoon session. I had a good rest and lunch between sessions and arrived at the pool in plenty of time to do a good warmup (the whole second 25-meter course was open throughout the event for continuous warmups and cooldowns) in my Funky Trunks brief. About thirty minutes before my race, I went to the locker room to put on my practically brand new (I had only worn it during the three previous races) Arena Powerskin Carbon Glide tech suit and this happened:

  

• I was so p***ed off. Three races?? I have never had a tech suit fail so spectacularly and so quickly. The only saving grace is that this happened in the locker room and not on the pool. Fortunately, I had a backup, relatively new Lycra suit in my bag ... but without all the bells, whistles of a true tech suit.

• As for the race itself, I had a very clear race strategy all based upon stroke count: 100 at 13 strokes per length (SPL), 200 at 14 SPL, 200 at 15 SPL, 200 at 16 SPL and then let the final 100 rip. In addition to allowing me to control my pace at the start, this approach makes it easy to count 4-8-8-8-4 (this will come back for Fail #2)

• I was seeded third and the guys in lane 4 and 5 took it out faster than me, but I had passed both of them by around the 500 meter mark and was feeling strong, excuting my stroke count strategy to perfection. I got to what I felt was the last 700 and still felt strong, but with not quite enough energy to really pour on the legs until the last 50.

• Fail #2 - for whom the bell doesn't toll - In addition to having no one to count for me and a race strategy that made counting to 32 easy, I also didn't fear not having a lap counter since every lane had an individual bell and timer who was responsible for ringing said bell at the ~745M mark. As I approached what I thought was the 750 turn ... I heard no bell. While I was pretty darn confident that it was the 750 mark, I have certainly swum plenty of distance events over my life where I miscounted. So, I kept on the same pace, figuring I had 100 left. As I approached the 775 mark, though, the guy in lane 4 (who was now rapidly approaching me) had a counter and I saw we had one length left, so I called to my legs and got home as fast as I could.

• I held on for the win and for a great time ... but a bit frustrated that, like the 400, I came close, but not enough, to the National Record. My 200 splits were a model of consistency - 2:16.77, 2:20.44, 2:20.29, 2:19.68 - but I still think I can go faster in the future.

• Here's how I summarized this for my family:

  
  

In closing, this was one of the best meets I've had since I turned 50, but I was so close, a cumulative 1.01 seconds over three different events, to breaking three National Records ... so I left exhausted, but very motivated to amp up the training more.