At the finsih with Eileen Swanson, Professional Triathlete and Coach

This was a traiining run for my up coming Boston Marathon.  I wanted to keep things easy since I planned to run 3-4 miles after the race to get in my 18 or so as I had planned.  I got to the race with enough time to warmup about 2 miles and then waited for the police to make sure the roads were clear. 

We started off a little late but the day was clear, cold but no wind which is more than often than not out in "Windermere".  started off at a nice pace, around 7:15 miles for the first 5 and then when the races started on an long uphill, I pulled back and cruised. the last few miles were at a comfortable pace around 8 minutes per mile, but the pounding on the concrete started to get to me.

After crossing the finishline in a respectable 1:40, I turned around and ran about 1 mile bac against the course. My legs were aching so i turned around and ran walked back to the finishline to see some of my other friends finsh.

A fine day with great refreshments and my favorite, Ice Cream at the finish area.  Event 19 done, bring on Boston!

This meet was going to help me improve my times and seeding for the National championship. It was cold and rainy and the pool was very crowded for warm-ups. The pool was set up for 8 lanes in the 50 meter pool side of the center with a bulkhead at the 25 yd. wall. I had a diffucult time with my turns during warmup.  The 500 was my first event and my entry time put me in an outside lane against the wall.  When the gun went off, I dove in and started my stroke count heading towards the wall,  I made my turn and was too far away from the wall and barely touched.  I sprint to catch up and make the next turn, too close, I am jammed at the wall, sprint to catch up.  This went on almost every lap.  I also lost count and through I had more laps to swim when the guy next too me stopped.  It was very frustrating but my time was only 5 seconds from my swim in January.  Off to the warm-down pool and practice my turns.  I hit everyone.  OK now I'm ready for the 100 free. I drew a better lane in the middle of the pool.  Felt warmed up and ready to go. The gun goes off and I'm in the water, good start and I miss the first turn AGAIN! I am now behind, the next turn is even worse, i hit both heels on the gutter, blinding pain but i keep going, the last turn was ok but the damage was done, I am dead last in my heat, 2 seconds slower than 2 months earlier.

I limp away from the pool, warmdown  for a few minutes and get dried off.  As I am waiting for my next event, it starts to rain, so i pack it in and head home.  Disappointed with my performance but looking forward to another meet to improve my times before Nationals.