Race Result

Racer:	Richard Gendron
Race:	Tropical Splash (SCY)
Date:	Sunday, January 31, 2010
Location:	Alexandria, VA
Race Type:	Swim - Swim Meet
Age Group:	Male 40 - 44
Comment:	Fun, fun and More Fun

Race Report:

The timing of the tropical splash is good relative to outdoor racing. It's far enough away from early bike season to allow some extra time in the pool and far enough away from triathlon season to allow time to work short sprints and strokes.

Mt Vernon is pretty close and the rec center is in good shape. It was great to see that it was closed to non-racers during the meet.

This meet feels very festive, with music and food and lots of friendly smiling folks. Plus it was fun to look out the windows and see a few inches of snow on the ground as we strolled around in racing suits and sweats.

Warm ups started at 7:45 and the meet started at 8:30. The 500 free was first, which I should have accounted for. It took a good 40 minutes. Those are minutes I could have had in bed. Next time, I'll either enter the 500 or sleep in and warm up in the side lane.

1) 50 Fly - 32:49 (+1:06) - First heat of the day. Not sure why this was so much slower than Patriot. I've been working to extend my range (to include the 100 and possibly the 200) which may have taken some sting out of my cadence. Need more and better warm up.

2) 100 free 1:04:33 (-1:67) - best race of the day and confirms that I had a bad heat at Patriot Sprints

3) 200 Free 2:29:66 (+0:67) - Funny this felt so much better than Patriot Sprint meet, in fact it didn't really hurt as much it should have. Had I spent more time trying to increase turnover, I think thie result would have been much nicer.

4) 100 Fly 1:20:60 (No PR) - I finished and established a baseline. Now I have something to work from.

I scratched the 50 free because it was a full 90 minute wait from the 100 fly to the 50 free, so I decided to go home early.

Next meet is Colonies Zone SCY championship at George Mason. I'll be focusing on the longer distances (1000, 500 and 200 Free) the 100 fly and establishing a baseline in the 100 IM and maybe the 50 breast.