Ten Lengths of a Pool

Chris Bhatla and Karin emerged victorious from last week's 500m swim time trial. Chris' sister Jen has won the event before with times in the 7:10 range, so he figured some thirty seconds faster would be all it takes to win the men's division. Certain club members are relieved to learn that swimming speed is indeed hereditary and their choppy, miserable form is no fault of their own. His 6:41 stands as one of the best ever by an active club member. Karin was a full second slower than last year, but her 7:30 was more than fast enough to win the event. Second place went to Fiona in a time of 8:02, while Victoria's 8:21 was good for third place. Since Victoria was not actually present at the event,some accusations have been flying that she actually swam this time in a river, downstream with a strong current. She has never broken 8:40 in a swimming pool under supervision, so the accusations have some merit. For someone who is well on track to win the Point Series overall, Victoria should really turn up at more official events in order to satisfy her accusers. She was recently seen ordering syringes from Livestrong.org (they had a big sale recently) and using Paul Ryan's watch to time her solo events.

Nathaniel was always quick, but he has shaved off an additional 18 seconds this year. His 7:00 time from last fall is now down to 6:42. He will however have to settle for 998 points, not 1000. Nathaniel fancies himself to have the cleanest, crispest, quickest flip turn among all members of the triathlon club. The 50m pool was an unfair disadvantage he claimed. In the hot tub after the race, he could be heard loudly boasting about how he would have destroyed Chris had the race been held in a 4, 6 or 8m pool. For all of October Nathaniel had been practicing his flip turns in the small pool at the Holiday Inn on Burrard just in case the 500m time trial was held in an especially small facility. I guess since the third place women got a mention it should be said that Brendan was third in a time of 7:12. Otherwise it was a performance not worth much attention as nobody ever cares about third.

He spent the rest of practice sulking on the bottom of the pool.

One club member didn't really need a watch to get his time today. He swam a time of 9:00 in the Fall of 2010. He matched this feat in the fall of 2011, coming in at 9:00. This time he wanted to show that two years of training have actually done something but did not want to be accused of inconsistency- he swam a time of 8:59. If you haven't guessed already, the following photo should be of help. His name rhymes with Flinston.

In other news, Seth's "Most Improved Swimmer" title awarded last year is being revoked. His 13:24 from last fall is now down to a 13:02, a mere 22 seconds. Nathaniel almost improved by that much and he was already good. I would mention the brick coming up and how the Point Series is almost over but this post was written way too late and the brick is way too soon to be worth talking about.