celebration!
I know there is something unseemly about bragging about ones swimming times. I think for many masters swimmers, a sense of personal accomplishment is best savored inwardly. John Wayne, were he to have taken up masters swimming, certainly would never have jumped up and down in giddy pride over a personal record. Nor, I suspect, would Clint Eastwood.
Having said this, I would just like to take a moment to jump up and down in shameless giddly pride over a recent swim I had!!!
At Y nationals in Ft. Lauderdale a couple weeks ago, at the age of 49, I swam the best 200 yard freestyle of my life--a 1:55.11, which beat my high school and college time by nearly a full second. I realize this may actually say a lot more about my former mediocrity that it does about my current prowesss, but the fact remains that as I near semi-centenarian status, I was able to whoop my teenage self!!! (Sorry about that, youngster Jim; you just didn't know how to race smart back then.)
I went into the race hoping just to break two minutes; I had never before broken 1:56, and this didn't even enter my consciousness as a possibility. When I finished the race--splitting 57 and 58 respectively--I wasn't even all that exhausted. I looked over, saw my time on the big board, and I have been ludicrously, bumptiously proud of myself ever since.
Anyhow, I'm hoping that rather than annoying my fellow masters swimmers who may read this post, this exercise in self-congratulations/aggrandizment will encourage others to pen their own moments of personal satisfaction. Where better to celebrate than here, where your fellow swimmers actually know about swimming times and (unlike the world at large) conceivably even care?
Greg,
I think people in all age groups probably feel theirs is the toughest, but I agree with you--the 45-49 and 50-54 cohorts in men seem to me to be particularly tough. My theory is that guys our age all swam during the late 60s, early 70s Mark Spitz-7-gold-medals-around-the-neck era. The poster of this accomplishment seemed to hang on every other dorm room wall in the country. Male swimming was in its golden age back then, at least in the USA. (It's apparently in even more of a golden age in Australia right now.)
Since then, the combination of Title IX and the fashion trend towards baggy shorts have dealt something of a 1-2 punch to male swimming domestically. When I was a kid, the local Y team was significantly more than 50% boys; today, I doubt if 10% of the swimmers are male.
On our masters team in suburban Pittsburgh, there are a bunch of aging geezers like me, and a handful of 20-30-early 40 something women. In a sense, this makes practices kind of fun for us dirty old men. But it also hints that the next generation of masters record breakers are going to be distaff. I predict that many of the male records set in the next 5-10 years--by the likes of Jim McConica and his ilk--will stay in effect for an awfully long time. Twenty years from now, on the other hand, women's masters records will be dropping precipitously.
BTW, I don't mean to be mean-mouthing Title IX, because I do think it's done a lot of good for women athletes. It is interesting, however, to note that both of the 20-something ex-college swimmers on our team today say that they wish Title IX had NOT impacted male swimming programs so negatively. As one of these women put it, "As women swimmers, we want there to be men swimmers too to hang out with." Sadly for them, I suppose, today this means guys like me!
Greg,
I think people in all age groups probably feel theirs is the toughest, but I agree with you--the 45-49 and 50-54 cohorts in men seem to me to be particularly tough. My theory is that guys our age all swam during the late 60s, early 70s Mark Spitz-7-gold-medals-around-the-neck era. The poster of this accomplishment seemed to hang on every other dorm room wall in the country. Male swimming was in its golden age back then, at least in the USA. (It's apparently in even more of a golden age in Australia right now.)
Since then, the combination of Title IX and the fashion trend towards baggy shorts have dealt something of a 1-2 punch to male swimming domestically. When I was a kid, the local Y team was significantly more than 50% boys; today, I doubt if 10% of the swimmers are male.
On our masters team in suburban Pittsburgh, there are a bunch of aging geezers like me, and a handful of 20-30-early 40 something women. In a sense, this makes practices kind of fun for us dirty old men. But it also hints that the next generation of masters record breakers are going to be distaff. I predict that many of the male records set in the next 5-10 years--by the likes of Jim McConica and his ilk--will stay in effect for an awfully long time. Twenty years from now, on the other hand, women's masters records will be dropping precipitously.
BTW, I don't mean to be mean-mouthing Title IX, because I do think it's done a lot of good for women athletes. It is interesting, however, to note that both of the 20-something ex-college swimmers on our team today say that they wish Title IX had NOT impacted male swimming programs so negatively. As one of these women put it, "As women swimmers, we want there to be men swimmers too to hang out with." Sadly for them, I suppose, today this means guys like me!
