Race Report - Kings Aquathon

I have been a regular competitor at the Aberdeen Uni Kings Aquathon for over a decade now. It was my first ever multi-sport event before I even started doing triathlons. My first few attempts involved breast stroking and trying to chase people down on the run. More recent attempts have been vaguely more balanced.  

However the race is normally 400m swim & 5k run or 750m swim & 10k run. this year they changed it to 750m swim & 5k run to be more representative of a sprint triathlon.

Also it is the first time they have held this race in the new Aquatics centre. The assumption when I was submitting my entry was that this would mean the race would be held in the new 50m pool. Instead they held it in the diving pool It is still a fairly good pool, with nice wide lanes, water-level sides and a magical floor that they can move up and down to change the pool depth for diving or swimming. But it isn't the 50m pool I was hoping for. 

On the first length I somehow managed to miss the wall with my turn and ended up bashing my ankle on the pool side. It was stupid, and meant I was nervy about the rest of my turns for the whole race. Also all the rollering from the previous few days had loosened off a lot of things in my back and shoulders, but they very rapidly tightened up again during the swim. 

I had to make a couple of stops to let the two other swimmers in my lane pass as they were managing to swim on predicted time. And once they were past the wide lanes and their better turns meant that I couldn't draft off them either. 

With a few lengths to go I realised there were hardly any other swimmers left in the pool. So I dragged myself out of the water nearly a minute down on my planned swim time thinking I was third-last in the slow heat. Turns out that they had put the fast heat on first and that the slow heat was still waiting to go in.

I had gambled on my feet surviving 5k without socks, and that being worth saving the 10 seconds to put them on. This was not the right choice. 

The new run route wasn't very exciting. It was 5 loops around half the block. I was fine for about a lap and a half before I managed to wear a chunk of skin off my toe. From then every second step was increasingly painful. The ankle I had bashed off the pool-side was also starting to stiffen up. 

I was managing to pick up the pace slightly each lap, and I think I made up as many places as I lost on the run. I was struggling to get my legs moving fast though and I was only just under 8 minute mile pace. Coupled to the run being slightly over distance (about half a mile) the run was also a lot slower than I had hoped for. 

I finished as 4th Male Senior (non-student) of 6, and 18th of the 29 total starters.  The places just in front of me were quite densely packed so if I had swum close to my target time or run anywhere near the pace I raced at the week before I would have been much better placed.

So I am mildly disappointed with the overall result. It gives me some things to work on though. My turns really need to be sorted, and my swim speed should be better. And if I work too hard in the pool it does affect my run. And remember to wear socks!

Full results are here