The Man with No Time

The first part of my road trip around the UK took me to Sheffield for the RLSS National Speed Championships. This was actually my second trip to the Speeds; in my second year at St Andrews myself and a friend travelled down to compete. That trip wasn't a particularly great experience for me, as I had my backpack stolen, with phone, laptop, watch, etc. The competing had been fun though. However, that wasn't the purpose of my second appearance, This time I was there to shadow the competition organiser, with the aim of picking up some hints and tips for the BULSCA Champs the following weekend. (Credit: The RLSS)

I spent today taking part in a slightly different form of lifesaving sport. Rather than the SERC-based experience of BULSCA events, this was a speed lifesaving, which is a very different beast. The competitions are basically rather odd swimming galas, with individual and relay events in a range of disciplines. Rather than different strokes though, the events use different skills. The Scottish Short Course Speeds are run to the RLSS’s short course rules, and all of the events are therefore half-distance compared to their standard, long-course versions. This is good for me, as I’m definitely more of a sprinter than an endurance swimmer, but sadly there are no rope throw events. In the 2012 event I did well enough to earn two bronze medals and a silver medal.  This year, unfortunately, didn’t go quite so well.

It's time for part 2 of my series on the hobbies and activities that suck up all of my time! Today I'm going to talk about possibly the second biggest (sometimes even  the  biggest) time-sink: lifesaving. Warning - this post will be a long one!