   CheckResults(count == 2*N*500)
 }
 
+let _substrings = "pen,pineapple,apple,pen,✒️,🍍,🍏,✒️".split(separator: ",")
+let _comparison = _substrings + ["PPAP"]
+
 @inline(never)
 public func run_SubstringComparable(_ N: Int) {
-	var string = "pen,pineapple,apple,pen"
-	string += ",✒️,🍍,🍏,✒️"
-	let substrings = string.split(separator: ",")
-	let comparison = substrings + ["PPAP"]
+	let substrings = _substrings // without this alias, there was 25% slowdown
+	let comparison = _comparison // due to increased retain/release traffic 🤷‍‍
 	var count = 0
 	for _ in 1...N*500 {
 		if substrings.lexicographicallyPrecedes(comparison) {

  var s0 = longWide
  withUnsafeMutablePointer(to: &s0) { blackHole($0) }
  s0 += "!"
  
  // These two should be equal but with distinct buffers, both refcounted.
  let a = Substring(s0).dropFirst()
  let b = String(a)

  BenchmarkInfo(name: "LessSubstringSubstringGenericComparable", runFunction: run_LessSubstringSubstringGenericComparable, tags: [.validation, .api, .String]),
  BenchmarkInfo(name: "StringFromLongWholeSubstring", runFunction: run_StringFromLongWholeSubstring, tags: [.validation, .api, .String]),
  BenchmarkInfo(name: "StringFromLongWholeSubstringGeneric", runFunction: run_StringFromLongWholeSubstringGeneric, tags: [.validation, .api, .String]),
  BenchmarkInfo(name: "SubstringComparable", runFunction: run_SubstringComparable, tags: [.validation, .api, .String],
    setUpFunction: { blackHole(_comparison) }),
  BenchmarkInfo(name: "SubstringEqualString", runFunction: run_SubstringEqualString, tags: [.validation, .api, .String]),
  BenchmarkInfo(name: "SubstringEquatable", runFunction: run_SubstringEquatable, tags: [.validation, .api, .String]),
  BenchmarkInfo(name: "SubstringFromLongString", runFunction: run_SubstringFromLongString, tags: [.validation, .api, .String]),
