Olympic Gold medalist
Duncan Goodhew
Duncan Goodhew
My husband Steve and I have taken part in
the annual National Swimathon event for many years. We have found it a useful
part of our triathlon training because there is not often an opportunity to swim
5000 Metres in a normal public session or indeed even a club session which is
only one our long. 200 lengths, does take a while. Without intending to sound biblical; ‘In the
beginning’ 1980 0r 1989 I think, it was a very serious event. I remember well that Olympic Gold medalist
Duncan Goodhew came along, speaking words of encouragement on poolside the first year we
took that challenge.
It was all very strict and swimmers were set
off at ten second intervals in their lane where that had been carefully placed,
according to their estimated swim time. Swimmers with a rough similar swim time, swimming together up to six
in a lane. That worked well and the group could benefit from swimming together.
Fast swimmers in the first lane and gradually working down to slow swimmer or
people who were all doing breast stroke. There were lane counters seated at the end of the pool and swimmers were given different coloured hat
to make it easy for the person counting to mark them off each time that came
back to the starting end.
When a swimmer reached 50 lengths a pull buoy
was held into the water for the swimmer
to see and check their own counting, since most people are not very good at
holding their concentration whilst swimming a long distance, it's easy to think
of something else and when the mind wanders, even just a bit, you can lose count. The same thing would happen on reaching 100 metres
and 150 meters and that was most helpful to the swimmers.
Then each year, you can try to bring your
5000 metre time down, a little at a time and that is very satisfying. Of late,
the system seems to have been neglected a little there is no sign of a pre-swim
talk advising how to pass the swimmer in front if they tire and start to hold
another swimmer up: They should tap the feet on the one in front gently and
then at the end of the length the slower swimmer would give way. All very civilized.
This year a new idea was added to the
selection of what was offered to contestants to enter. As usual there was 5000, 2500 and I think 1250 this year, a stronger event was
on offer to be taken on; The Triple Challenge. This would mean doing that swim on
all three days that the Swimathon takes place at swimming pools nationwide.
Having said that though, most centres only host the Swimathon for two days,
hours of the choice of the management.
And so it came to pass, that my husband and
head coach of our club had to drive 38 miles to find a pool where there was the
option to swim on the first day. We
headed for the nearest pool we could find and that was Leatherhead Leisure centre
with two time choices; 1pm-4pm and then an evening session of 4pm until 7pm.
Our No.1 swim of the ‘Triple’, that we had
entered at Leatherhead on Friday 29th was a total shambles. There appeared not to be much in the way of
planning and the staff had obviously not been trained to manage this event
well. In fact nobody seemed to be able to answer any questions without looking
round for somebody else to provide the answer. What a shame because it is a
nice centre. Faster swimmers were given a lane together. The rest were not
really worried about much or so it seemed.
I was put in a lane where there were two
faster men doing Front Crwal, then two others doing breaststroke, one other lady and
myself made up the six. I did FC. The other lady appeared to alternate FC /BR. It was VERY rough, with aggressive overtaking,
resulting for in some bruising. The young staff had no little or no idea how to
manage the event. One staff member strode along poolside about twenty minutes
after the appointed start time just shouted , "You can go now"!
Timing should be precise, to the second, but
was not because we all went off together. So
there was a sort of messy mass start. Not a ten second apart start, as there should
have been. Timing was left to the swimmers really as the counting was not great but
not the staff's fault. The staff did have at least, the Swimathon supplied forms
and there were counters doing their best I suppose.
I was told my time was 2 hours 6 minutes and
thirty seconds. I hope it was at least sent in to Swimathon for the results. I
doubled up my chances by sending my own in, along with my complaint. My husband counted for himself and when he
had finished he shouted at me how many lengths I had to go. It was sad to see
the event go downhill like that. But we did not complain about the staff. Not
their fault, just untrained for the task at hand, with no idea how important it
might be to some of the swimmers. E.G National age group positions.
Poolside in Littlehampton Wave, our wonderful new swimming and sports centre
Thank God and all the angels, on the Saturday
and Sunday, I swam at the brand new Littlehampton Wave centre that was run in a
much better fashion. Both days were
evening swims, and some of the people who had entered were not present. One of my friends did not feel
sufficiently recovered from the bug he had been suffering for a few weeks and
my husband had had to go to France
working. Saturday 30th I had a lane to
myself as did another friend in the fast lane, that was nice but of course
slower without other swimmers to work with. 2 hours 08.
Sunday 31st. I swam with two
other women the same speed, taking turns in the lead. One of those was only
doing the half distance, so I continued swimming with a woman I know well, who
was taking the 5000 metre challenge for the first time and was terrified that
she would not be able to get through it . I was quite sure that she could and
would. We swim roughly the same speed and are both triathletes. We did 2 hour 3
mins 00. We were well counted by another female friend and supervised by a
manager also.
My total for the triple then was 6 hours 17
minutes 30 seconds. My DOB 14
08.39.
I will be
80 in August, so was not sure if I would be in Age group 75-79 for actual age
on the day or 80-84 (if age is on Dec 31st as it is in the triathlon
world). I have
taken part in the Swimathon many times but really enjoyed the new triple challenge in
my 80th year.
Thank you
for reading my tale.
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