Entering just a day or two before, Jack Elton-Walters took part in the second race of the South London Swimming Club Summer Aquathlon Series based in and around Tooting Bec Lido.

The splash’n’dash started with a 1km swim comprising 11 lengths of the 91m, open air and fresh water lido. There were no lanes, so it was a good bit of open water practice, especially as swimmers needed to avoid other competitors coming back towards them as well as those along side.
Not that there were too many alongside at the pedestrian pace Jack was going at. A return to swimming around five weeks ago hasn’t yet cancelled out the preceding nine months of no swimming, due to lockdown, so there was a lot to do on the run.

After a fairly efficient transition, three laps of a 2.5km circuit around Tooting Common awaited. Pushing hard up the climb of the rail bridge at the start of the first lap, Jack set out at a fairly quick pace and overtook a few people. The far side of each lap also included a second railway bridge rise but this didn’t sap too much from the legs. The pace proved sustainable and meant for a reasonable average of 4:06/km for the whole run.
A sprint to the finish line outside the lido marked the end of Jack’s first multisport event that didn’t involve a bike.

Results
1km swim, 7.5km run
Overall time: 51:41.8
Splits: none published
Overall: 25/77
Male: 21/53
Male 16-39: 13/26