2014 FINA World Championships - 100 Back LCM

Aug
8

2014 FINA World Championships - 100 Back LCM

Posted by Kevin Doak on Friday at: 11:51am (August 8th, 2014)

This was my first 100m race in the secondary pool. Since the pool is a ways away from the main action, it adds a level of stress to the afternoon. It requires you to plan your warmup and then the trip over there. Since you have no idea when the heats before you swim, you move your schedule forward to accommodate any scheduling irregularities. In the case of this swim, I didn’t want to walk 15 minutes, then swim a 100 Back. Normally I would see a 15 minute walk as “great exercise”. Yet, when I’m preparing for my most painful race, I have no intention of wearing my legs out any more than I need to. Therefore, I opted to take the bus. A decision I don’t know if I would repeat. It added an extra layer of stress to my pre-event preparation. As I mentioned above, the bus doesn’t leave till it’s full. When I got on the bus, I took the last seat. I honestly thought we would leave within a moment… I was wrong. We sat there for nearly 15 minutes as people trickled onto an already full bus. Only when we couldn’t fit another living, and intact, human body on the bus, did it start to move forward. I was amazed, there were people spilling onto each other, faces with butts right in front of them, people uncomfortably touching strangers, it was just silly. Meanwhile I’m stressing out about getting to my race on time. We made the trip and I sort of jogged the rest of the way to the pool. I was sweaty when I arrived. I tossed on my race suit and headed to the marshalling area. I arrived JUST in time as they called my heat up. I almost walked on the deck still wearing my sunglasses on my head. I might have just swam with them up there if I had arrived any later. I felt a bit out of breath as I hopped in the water for my race. It wasn’t an ideal race-prep that I did. I positioned myself on the horrible “Omega” timing pad and prepared to slip off it and ruin my race. Miraculously I managed a conservative (slow) but non-slip start to flip at the 50 in 29.60. I gave that last 50 everything I had as I reached in for the finish to see a 1:01.92 on the board. I had a feeling I was going to be a 1:01.xx. It’s a long way from my 57.44 a few years ago but still respectable for minimal training. As I passed my friend Eric who competes in the 75 year old age bracket, I told him about my mediocre 1:01 race as he and his friend chuckled at my disappointment considering that time would be superhuman for his age group, it was a light-hearted moment that we all smiled at. I congratulated a few other backstrokers on my way out and headed back to the main pool to warm down. I’m struck with how wishing somebody a “good job” is sort of universal with regard to languages. In each one of my races, I touched the wall and reached over to my competitor and either shook their hand or gave them a “thumbs up”. I know a majority of them didn’t speak English, yet we always shared a smile. It just feels good to share a good-will moment with somebody who hails from the other side of the planet. We’re so different, yet all the same in that instant.

I was out in a 29.60 and finished in a 1:01.92 for a 5th place finish

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