Geek vs. Gull II, or why I now idolize the Geek and have embraced TI
Former Member
The Geek and I swam head to head this weekend, matching up in the 200 and 500 (in adjacent lanes for both, believe it or not). The Geek won both, beating me by about a second in the 200 and I believe 3 or 4 seconds in the 500. He'd shed 20 pounds since we last raced and shaved (as I did), but he was not wearing a Fastskin. I did swim a personal (Masters) best in the 500, nearly 5 seconds faster than last year, and split it extremely well, but alas it wasn't enough. As the winner, he walked off with a Starbucks gift card and of course this thread.
See you in Austin in 2008, Geek.
It's healthy rivalries of this sort that can move us to examine more aspects of how we swim and how our practice relates to our racing goals.
Amen brother! When I first started swimming, this guy, lets call him EddieTheEaglesFan, was swimming with us, and he was a pretty good swimmer and kind of taunted me about me being 18/19/20 and slower than he. It got me motivated pretty good, and I was gunning for him in the 200 free. When I finally beat him, I destroyed him, and though he was peeved, he was very gracious in admitting I worked hard for it and deserved it.
Next target: Ellis, sprinter by nature, becoming distance swimmer by age (~12 years my senior). We started gunning for some ambitious 500 times in '04. Whatever time he went, I was 3-5 sec behind; to make matters more exciting, the next meet we swam, I'd finish with his times from the previous meet and he would just continue the 3-5 second domination. Nationals, he busted out a 5:03, I went a 5:12, which is right about his zone time.
'05 was an interesting year. We were both gunning for sub 5-min. Pretty much every meet, I would take the lead through the 400, only to be overtaken at the end EVERY TIME (the sprinter in him taking over). I became known as Ellis' Bizzatch (less friendly term), and his overtaking became known as "EB'ing."
At '05 nationals, he swam about 20 minutes before I did, lowered his '04 time to a 5:01.93. I of course wanted to beat Ellis, but also wanted to get that 4:59.99. Gunned it and swam like a bat out of hell. Finished 5:01.... 81! YAY!!
We're still gunning for that 4:59.99, pushing each other to the edge to try to get it.
:dedhorse:
It's healthy rivalries of this sort that can move us to examine more aspects of how we swim and how our practice relates to our racing goals.
Amen brother! When I first started swimming, this guy, lets call him EddieTheEaglesFan, was swimming with us, and he was a pretty good swimmer and kind of taunted me about me being 18/19/20 and slower than he. It got me motivated pretty good, and I was gunning for him in the 200 free. When I finally beat him, I destroyed him, and though he was peeved, he was very gracious in admitting I worked hard for it and deserved it.
Next target: Ellis, sprinter by nature, becoming distance swimmer by age (~12 years my senior). We started gunning for some ambitious 500 times in '04. Whatever time he went, I was 3-5 sec behind; to make matters more exciting, the next meet we swam, I'd finish with his times from the previous meet and he would just continue the 3-5 second domination. Nationals, he busted out a 5:03, I went a 5:12, which is right about his zone time.
'05 was an interesting year. We were both gunning for sub 5-min. Pretty much every meet, I would take the lead through the 400, only to be overtaken at the end EVERY TIME (the sprinter in him taking over). I became known as Ellis' Bizzatch (less friendly term), and his overtaking became known as "EB'ing."
At '05 nationals, he swam about 20 minutes before I did, lowered his '04 time to a 5:01.93. I of course wanted to beat Ellis, but also wanted to get that 4:59.99. Gunned it and swam like a bat out of hell. Finished 5:01.... 81! YAY!!
We're still gunning for that 4:59.99, pushing each other to the edge to try to get it.
:dedhorse:
