Swimathon - wk 23 Friday 12th March

Having posted good times at the first 3 races of the year and feeling I was strong for the swim I was hoping that confidence levels would be raised higher with a good performance at the 5k swimathon.
Confidence was to take a bit of a bashing, but considering a late night (writing up blog), a hard brick session the night before (what I was writing up in the blog) and an early start I guess I got what I ought to have been expecting.
Frank Ellis had arranged a private 50m lane for us for our Swimathon 5k rather than joining one of the official sessions where they pick who you get in the lane with you. My companions were Simon Edye, Jim Macloed and Frank.
Really wanted to do a sub 75 minute 5k. That means 1k per 15 minutes which means the 3.8k distance of an Ironman swim would be sub 57minutes which would build confidence for a fast swim on race day. First 100 was sub 1:28. At least that was a good start. First 200 done in sub 3:06. ( I was looking at the digital clock on the wall after surfacing from the tumble.) First 1k in 15 something or other. The higher end of 15 minutes I suspect. Then at 1100m my brother, who is counting my laps for me puts a float in the water to indicate that the first 1k is done. I stop to ask him if he is sure and both he and Jo, who is counting Simon's laps, both assure me it is. I look at the clock and it's over 17 minutes. Oh dear, won't be going under 75 minutes on this occasion then.
I was over taking the others in my lane quite regularly. Frank I was laping every 300m. Jim every 500m and Simon. Well, Simon speeds up against my slowing down. I went past him for the first time at 850m then again at 1800, 2800, 4000 and that was it.
My time for the 5k was 1:23:09. Not overly impressed with that. It's not a bad time. It's just not what I wanted and doesn't convince me I 'm going well.
The splits for each of the kilometers as kindly recorded by my brother were 17:24, 15:59, 16:20, 16:30 and 16:56. Does support my feelings that I faded and that I'd done 100m too much in the first 1k. When presented with those numbers Dave was still confident that he'd counted right and at the 1k point remembers checking with Jo and at that point that's what Simon had done and I'd not laped him. Phew that's a relieve and explains where the extra was because Simon has happy to confirm I'd laped him in the first 1k.