Hoeven Zwemloop

Finally the season begins for me with the Hoeven Zwemloop.  Not a big race but an important one, the first one is always the hardest but it gives the chance to kick things off and get the ball rolling and find out where things are at.  I would be lying if i said i wasnt heading into this one a little nervous but still i was excited.  the drive was about an hour from Home (den Haag) down to Heoven near Breda.  

As per usual straight into registration and after i sorted out the gear and watched the longer distance guys slug it out in the pool before the start of our race. The set up they had was different with a 40 odd people divided into 6 or 7 different lanes of a 50 m pool each with a different colour cap and i can only assume some sort of time grading.  Either way it all started well going through 200m at around 2:40ish and then i finished it off out of the water in about 4th or 5th in around the 7min mark courtesey of some back runners and the no less than 4 head on collissions with people coming the other way who some how struggle to stay right....but hey life goes on. 

Out of transition a few guys who had got the jump on me which gave me something to chase.  Not sure how the legs would go i hit it out with the goal of catching the lead group 150m in front catching them within the first km amd putting a time gap between.  From there it was myself and one other guy in 1st another 60m up the road.  While we pulled away from the field he managed to maintained the small gap for the remainder of the run meaning i had to settle for second.  it was a little frustrating however with this being my first hit out and my 5km split of around 18:30 (a miassive PB...so so stoked) i have to think that overall i couldnt have really asked for a better start. 

So i finished 2nd overall (1st 21-40 Male - thier age groups are a bit different here,) in a time of  26:25 for the 500 swim and 5 km run.  Ill take that for now and with more consistent work and dropping a few more kgs!!!! things should continue to improve while looking forward to the next race.