Results of the 2014 OACM Ground Hog Classic Meet

This morning I swam at Granite High School's old pool at the OACM club's Ground Hog Classic meet.  I hadn't been to this pool since I was a sophomore in High School in 1988.

Reenactment of Sam doing his job as my split reporter.
Isaac did great as my counter. 

I started out with swimming the 1650.  I got Sam to time my 50 splits and hold up a piece of paper that I preprinted with certain numbers that I knew would be needed.  I started out getting 34s (the lowest number I printed), then started getting 35's.  By halfway into it I was spent.  I slowed up and started getting 36's, 37's and even some 38's.  I knew my PR was just not going to be reached.  I was running out of steam.  Finish time on the 1650 free: 20:21.11.  First place, but still about 25 seconds short of where I wanted.

I was up within 15 minutes swimming the 50 free: 26.80

Within another 15 minutes I was swimming the 100 free: 57.22.  On this one I intentionally held back on the first 50 just a touch and then poured it on on the second 50.  Passed Mark Belnap which was a surprise.  He's the sprinter in my age group.  I dropped nearly a full second on this, than the St. George meet.  So that's good.

Next up was the 500 free.  I simply was not going to get a PR on this one.  So the goal shifted to just getting under 6 minutes.  There was a young guy just to my right and I tried to stay on his feet, which made me do better.  Considering how spent I was I was only 8 seconds slower overall than my 500 time set a few weeks ago in St. George.  500 free: 5:41:16

I got out and after the others had finished I heard, "Gordon Gridley Lane 3!"  I looked over and they skipped event 16!  The entire field for the 100 fly had scratched so I had to get out after the 500, get like maybe 2 minutes rest, and then swim the 200 free!
200 Free: 2:07.57

Glad that I went, but man that was tough!  The water was just a degree or too warmer than I would have liked, but it was a fun meet.  I got to talk with Donald Barrus for quite a while and get to know him.  He got new PR's in his 50 and 100 free.  It's always neat to talk to and meet new people.  

I met Nathan Toll and his wife, he's the founder of the Master Pirahna Club in Ogden, and also met Michael Nappi, a guy who swims in Orem.  I tried talking him into swimming the one mile in GSL in June.  I gave out several cards to swimmers encouraging them to swim the open water events.