I swam competitively in high school because I stunk at team sports like Basketball and Football. Since I grew up in Florida, there were pools everywhere. I enjoyed competing in sports that did not involve hitting, catching, or throwing a ball, which required too much skill and coordination. In addition, the scenery was better poolside on our co-ed swim team than in the male locker room that frequently smelled like a jockstrap.
I hadn't swam competitively for over 25 years when I rediscovered how much fun it was to dive in a pool and swim fast. I had been running from age 35 to 43 and had gotten faster and better over those years, graduating from local 5K races to 10K races, and eventually to half-marathons. Unfortunately, I forgot I was over 40 and kept trying to go faster and faster. My left hamstring was having none of this folly and tore during a race and never fully healed. In its defense, I must say I was never big on warming up or stretching which gave my hamstring as much chance as anyone had this year beating Michael Phelps. This left me with an unwanted speed governor and a fair amount of intermittent pain when I pushed the envelope. I tried water running during a recovery phase from yet another hamstring strain and found myself swimming laps to keep from getting rotund.
After swimming laps twice a week for a month or two, I began to do a bit of research on the internet about swimming and stumbled upon the Michigan Masters website. I found out there were local swim meets for people aged 20 to 100 in most states and started training a little with an eye towards going to a swim meet as a competitor since my fast running days were behind me.
I started training slowly with a 100 yard warmup followed by shorter interval swims of 50 yards at a time and built up my yardage to 800 yards. Later I increased my yardage to around 1200 yards and added drills that I read about online. I focused on my two best strokes from high school, breaststroke and freestyle. The breaststroke rules had changed to make the stroke faster (you could now put your head under water with each stroke and do a dolphin kick on the "underwater pullout" after a turn ). I read about stroke technique, starts, open turns, and flip turns online and watched them on YouTube. My family thought I was crazy.
In high school I never mastered the flip turn, so all I could really swim was the 100 yard breaststroke and the breaststroke in the medley relay (a relay with 4 team members each swimming 50 yards of a different stroke). By watching the flip turn under water on YouTube.com and reading online descriptions, I was able to figure it out and eventually looked like a professional weekend warrior. I even bought a bike shorts style Speedo, some competition goggles and a swim cap (yes, a swim cap). I was serious. I dropped a few pounds with the swimming and was ready for my first meet in three months.
I went to the meet an hour away and was amazed at the number and age range of the contestants that came in all shapes and sizes. The meets ask for your "seed time" or known time for a given stroke and distance and place you in heats with people about the same speed so you don't look foolish. Well, not too foolish. I did get trounced by a sixty-two year old in the 100 yard freestyle. Some of these folks were fast. Occasionally I would be amazed by someones skill or stamina. I saw a man in a little Speedo with flames on it who was twenty pounds heavier and ten years older than me and I said, "I hope you are as fast as your suit." He said, We'll see." He went on to set the Michigan State record in the 200 yard breaststroke that day. I guess it was his suit...
I went right out and got a faster (more colorful) suit and trained harder and went to my next meet a month later. I was getting better at the breaststroke and was really having fun. At the gym where I was training, a woman asked me if I was ever in the Olympics. I told her I was a contributor to the Special Olympics. It felt good to be fast again. I was ten seconds off my high school time in the 100 yard breaststroke. I decided to go to the Michigan Masters State Championships and increased my training and honed my technique.
At the State meet, there were over 300 swimmers. I was nervous, but knew it was all just for fun. I entered the 50, 100, and 200 breaststroke events and hoped for the best. My wife even came to see me swim the 100 yard race and I got a season best, only four seconds off my high school time. I felt like an Olympian. I came in fourth place in all three of my events (just out of the medals...).
This year I'll go back and give it another try. I'll be moving up into the 45 year old age group, but just like in running, this age group is actually more competitive than the 40 to 44 year old grouping. I guess there are a lot of middle aged men (and women) trying to relive the "Glory Days". If you swam in high school or just want to try competitive swimming, look up Masters swimming in your state by doing a search online like "Masters Swimming+your state" and you'll find the rest of the Micheal Phelps and Dara Torres wannabees.
You can see the Michigan Masters website here.
