Saturday May 26th, Day 3 - IGLA in Paris

Today I was able to go at my own speed and get to the pool without rushing. There were a bunch of events today, but I was swimming in the final two events, 4X100 free relay and 800 free. In order to give me as much rest as I could, I entered my normal time for the 800 free to get me into at least the second to last heat, or possibly the last heat. Sure enough, I ended up being in lane 1 of the final heat. Is that good or bad? Do I have the confidence to swim with the big boys yet or do I still prefer to sandbag and win my earlier heats?

4 X 100 free relay. Same relay team as the 4X200 relay except for substituting Ken for Kurt. Kurt has been training well and said he was ready to be on a fast sprint relay, so here's his chance. It was between him and Ken for our relay and I chose Kurt. Drew led off the race with a swift :58.6. its just two seconds off what he does when he is in great shape, but since his primary focus this year is triathlon training, his sprinting has taken a backseat. I think he was happy with that lead-off time. Next up was Kurt. Earlier Ken Bixler had split 1:00.3. Kurt eneded up splitting :59.32. So it looks like it was a smart choice. Next was me. Two years ago I split a fast :56.80, going out in a 26.7, and last year at the end of a busy day I ended up splitting :58.49, going out in a :27.19. Since my freestyle seemed to be doing well in this meet, I was hoping for under 56 seconds. As I dove in, the excited got a little too much for me and I think I took that first 25 out to hard. I turned at 26.8. At the 75, I pushed off the wall and my legs felt like jello. I did everything I could to hang on and give Viking everything I had. My final split was 56.28. Not under 56, but still a good split to be happy with. Viking dove in and brought it home for us. We had a little bet between the two of us. He was given a 0.5 second handicap. With my split, he had to swim faster than a 56.78. Instead he ended up going 57.88. HA!! LOL.

Goal for relay split in 2008 - :55.50.

The next event was the 800 free. Based on my split from the 1500, I new that I had a good swim in me. Last year I had just missed Vikings 30-34 team record by less than 1 tenth of a second, going 9:29.49. I had already gotten his record in the 1500 two days ago by over 20 seconds, so it was pretty certain I'd take this one too. BGS had gone 9:20 last year, so my goal was under 9:20 this year. Nice friendly rivalry, huh? :-)

Being in the last heat I think helped. It made me stay with some of the faster boys. I was right next to Andre Nussbaumer from Switzerland who was in the next age group up. Earlier he had gone 17:52 so if I stayed with him, I knew I'd have a good swim. He must have been annoyed with me staying right at his feet the entire race. I went out in 1:06.55. I followed it up with with the next six 100s right around 1:10 low. My final 100 I came home in 1:08.2, to finish in 9:16.72. YA BABY!! Best event so far. I was stoked. I guess this means I should try and swim in the final heats from now on whenever possible.

GOAL FOR 2008 - 9:08

Medal tally for Day 3 - 1 gold, 1 silver: