T minus 11 days until I race the long distance pentathlon (200 LCM back, 200 LCM free, 200 LCM ***, 200 LCM fly, and 400 LCM IM) against an unknown challenger. I have it on good authority that this mystery swimmer will be wearing a Mexican wrestling mask and will not remove it between events. There are also unsubstantiated rumors that this person uses performance enhancing carbohydrates and caffeine, and may have even considered sandbagging once before chickening out. I'm told that our gridge hinges upon our total pentathlon time, but the stakes of this gridge have not yet been revealed even to me. Who is this enigmatic maverick, and why has he never been photographed with Gotham's caped crusader Bat Guy?
Backstroke split requests are the tricky ones. Along with the paperwork, the swimmer must finish the split-request distance with a hand touch, and the hand touch must be judged as legal, so the swimmer should let the ref know what's going on prior to the heat.
The Inland NW LMSC record for M30-34 100 LCM back is 1:11.21. I've raced the 100 LCM backstroke faster than that, but I've never taken my 200 LCM backstroke out that fast. So someone who (hypothetically of course) wanted to break that record in a split request fashion would need to be well ahead of me at the 100, keeping in mind that I might use that swimmer as a pacing device to ensure that my first 100 isn't too slow, since that's a common problem for me. :cane:
Regardless of the outcome of the totally hypothetical 100 split request by possibly existing peoples, I would give no quarter in any pre-existing gridges, subsequent throwdowns, or miscellaneous bar-brawls. But further attempts to distract or rattle me are strongly encouraged; it is as our gridging forefathers intended when they walked the plank of the Mayflower and raced butterfly through the Bermuda Triangle to see who could be the first to discover Disney World. :bliss:
Backstroke split requests are the tricky ones. Along with the paperwork, the swimmer must finish the split-request distance with a hand touch, and the hand touch must be judged as legal, so the swimmer should let the ref know what's going on prior to the heat.
The Inland NW LMSC record for M30-34 100 LCM back is 1:11.21. I've raced the 100 LCM backstroke faster than that, but I've never taken my 200 LCM backstroke out that fast. So someone who (hypothetically of course) wanted to break that record in a split request fashion would need to be well ahead of me at the 100, keeping in mind that I might use that swimmer as a pacing device to ensure that my first 100 isn't too slow, since that's a common problem for me. :cane:
Regardless of the outcome of the totally hypothetical 100 split request by possibly existing peoples, I would give no quarter in any pre-existing gridges, subsequent throwdowns, or miscellaneous bar-brawls. But further attempts to distract or rattle me are strongly encouraged; it is as our gridging forefathers intended when they walked the plank of the Mayflower and raced butterfly through the Bermuda Triangle to see who could be the first to discover Disney World. :bliss:
