Grey skies overhead, The ‘Sharks (Hannell & Wong) back in the pool, bringing the time trial forward a week and even the sledging of my NEW $3.95 K-Mart swimmers were still not enough to prevent the Stoke Boy from taking out the September ‘Golden Duck 1k Handicap race at A.B.C on Friday lunchtime.
The miserable weather continued but it was a decent turnout with 10 starters for the monthly event, Dan set the clock off and whilst I had to give The Champ an 18 second start, it proved a lot less in the end as he was poncing around with his swim cap and before he knew it missed his start and only went 4 seconds before I was let loose.
I sat in behind him for the first 200m but realized he was too slow and when I saw Crossy Lad in the next lane only metres behind I tucked under the lane rope and jumped on his feet for a bit of help. Managed to stay with him for about a further 300m before his extra pace saw him drop me and then I was in no-man’s land.
Really had no one to work from and had to just hang in for the second half of the race, hard to tell who and where people are with the handicap, but with 100m to go I had a quick glance and didn’t see anyone within 20m of me that meant either I was miles behind or the duck was coming back home to Erko.
Touched out in 16.51 and saw a smiling Brendan Wong standing at the pool, thought I’d been done again but was then happy when he wasn’t in the event that meant I could relax as Champ was next in and then Manly Steve to fill the minor placings.
Fastest time for me since about Feb this year I reckon, and a big improvement from the 18.xx s I was swimming in the middle of winter. Pretty happy all round and hopefully I can continue to keep the swimming up for the upcoming tris and biathlons over the summer.
A bit for controversy (when isn’t’ there ?). As Angus Boyd was parading around pool side as if he’d won, apparently in his wisdom he deemed my K-Mart specials were worthy of an extra 1 minute handicap….. WTF ???? I’ve never heard anything like it in my life, and how they come up with 60 seconds is anyone’s guess. What next? Oh, I’ve only got a Chopper Raleigh as a bike and you have Specialized – that’ll be a 3 minute handicap for you.
Geez, glad Gleeso wasn’t there or else they’d have given him a 2 minute penalty for wearing his ‘Peppa Pig’ sluggos as well.
Utter madness
Some good times across the board and they were:
Manly Steve 14.05
Pete Walker 14.49
Angus B 15.28
Crossy Lad 16.05
Timmy 16.51
Kroney 17.06
The Champ 17.39
Dan 17.45
Paul Hann 18.06
Brendan W 7.36 (then had to cut short to get to his regular Yum Cha lunch)
Big weekend on the cards, will try to get out for the Sunday long run, and a few ales in the afternoon, Was going to train with Crossy but he’s let me down again (says it’s too cold to venture out for his now ageing body?)
Stoke have a must win game at home again this week, I know I said it last week BUT they won’t lose this one. Biggest certs on the coupon. Take the Timmy’s Tip and get on Stoke 2 vs. Bournemouth 0 and as an extra bonus take the Shaq to get his name on the score sheet.
Have a good weekend
Train well, stay safe
Cheers
Timmy
September ‘Golden Duck’ Winner ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment