My first 1500M

I had never competed in the 1500M prior yesterday. In fact, a 200 is the longest event I have competed in since joining a Masters team early this summer. But for yesterday’s meet, I wanted to try something different. And that is the great thing about Masters swimming. If one day you decide you would like to try a different event, you just go for it. And that is what I did. Leading up to the meet, I experimented with my repeat 100s in practice to get a feel for the pace I wanted to hold. I did everything right to feel confident about holding my pace and hit my goal except for my activities the day before. With both kids in sports, I spent most of Saturday bouncing between games. And to top it off I went hoop netting for lobster (got my limit of 7 :D) later that night. I eventually made it home and got to bed around 2 AM having not eaten much the whole day. Check-in for the 1500 was at 8:00 and getting up Sunday was brutal. When my alarm went off, all I could think of was, “boy did I sabotage my race or what?” I wasn’t too worried about the lack of sleep, but I was worried about not eating much the day before. Surely I would pay a hefty price at some point during this race for that one. Heck I was already feeling sore and fatigued from hoop netting. I almost decided to skip it right then. But somehow I managed to get up and make to the pool for check in. At the pool I had a brief conversation with my coach (who was also running the meet) about what kind of pace I wanted to keep. The first 20 laps went by great. I was feeling confidant and day dreaming of when I might crank it up a notch for an impressive strong finish. The next ten laps seemed a little tougher but still ok. And then by the 35th lap, the self-doubt hit. Mentally I started analyzing the potential impacts my lack of sleep, little food and my lack of experience in a race of this distance would have on me. The 1500 is a much tougher race than I expected and by that point, the laps were going by painfully slow. Still I would look up and see my wife and kids at the side of the pool cheering and walking along the pool side equally as excited was my coach giving me the on pace signal. I could also see a few of my lane mates from work outs hanging around the edges of the pool holding their hands up or thumbs up encouraging me on. It was truly a great feeling and the pain and self doubt seemed to back away. I had high hopes of finishing with a strong 200 or even 300, but that quickly faded to a strong last 75, with my last 50 split being same as my first 50, a :36). And I hit my goal. I wanted to break 20 minutes (holding 1:20 hundreds) for my first 1500M and I did it with a 19:41. I know in the big picture a 19 minute mile is nothing to write home about. But for me, yesterday, it could have been 15 minutes that I broke. Or atleast that is how I felt. Kevin