About South City Masters Swimming

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To send an email click on 'view my complete profile' (below) and click on 'email'. South City Masters Swimming swim at the Lloyd Elsemore Swimming pool located on Sir Lloyd Drive in Pakuranga, Auckland. We have 3 sessions per week of 1 hour duration each. Monday evening from 7pm to 8pm, Wednesday evening from 7pm to 8pm and Sunday morning from 8am to 9am.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Marathon Swim, End of Season Triathlon



Better Late Than Never

Firstly, my apologies for not having already reported on this event. I was to write something up last week but a rather nasty bug knocked the stuffing out of me and then, oh well, enough excuses. The writing has now taken far longer than the swim itself.

Easter weekend saw Joe Average chilling out, eating hot cross buns and scoffing chocolate eggs like there’s no tomorrow. But club members Dave D, Liz, Dawn and Giles are no Joe Average, they are Joe Mighty. On Saturday 19th April the Auckland Central Masters introduced their inaugural 10 km marathon swim. Yes, there was a zero after that one and it was indeed 10 km but only if the swimmers swum in a nice straight line (good luck with that).

Numbers were limited and each swimmer was required to have their own kayak support to help with safety, navigation and feeding. The swim started at Glendowie boating club, took the swimmers around to St Heliers, past Kohimarama, turned them around in a U-turn at Tamaki Yacht Club and finished back at St Heliers beach.

While the weather wasn’t bad it wasn’t perfect either with some rough stuff particularly around St Heliers and Kohimarama. However, the most fun part (hmmm) was that the first 6.5 km was swum against an incoming spring tide. Couple that with the waves along the waterfront and you are left with very tired swimmers at the turnaround point at Tamaki Yacht Club.

62 Hardy swimmers entered the water at Glendowie and, remarkably, all 62 completed the swim. Amazing; not a single swimmer pulled out. Of our own clubbies, all four exited the water within a few minutes of each other. Dawn also won the cup for being first woman home – awesome effort.

Each of our swimmers took part in this event not as a race but as a personal challenge.  Were they up to it? There is no longer any doubt. Would they do it again? You will have to ask them that.

Last Triathlon Of The Season

Last Sunday saw quite a number of our club members take part in the last major triathlon event of the season. I couldn't be there but as you know, I have spies and roving reporters all over the place. It's wonderful that so many club members are willing and able to contribute material to the blog so we can all keep up to date with the going's on. A big thanks here to Denise for putting the results together and Mike H for writing up an entertaining report. Well done to all our athletes who have done so well in their triathlons throughout the season. Read on for Mike’s report of the last race and results.

Well it was a day that belied the fact that it is the end of April as we could not have asked for better conditions for the Panasonic Peoples Triathlon at Mission bay on Sunday 27 April. The start was early at 7:00 am for the standard triathlon and the sun rose across a sea that had less wrinkles than I had at 20 years old. The water made you catch your breath like an unsuspecting maiden but once going it was smooth sailing. Chrissie commented that it was impossible to see the turn buoy as she was looking directly into the rising sun so you needed only to follow the rest of the lemmings. Chrissie and Denise were doing the swim leg of the standard as part of a team and brave Nicole Youman (one piece) was doing the whole race solo.

The sprint tri started 35 minutes later and the sun had risen a little to allow for an unobscured view of the buoy, temporarily that is. The pack launched themselves into the ocean with high expectations only to realise that at a distance of 500 meters every kid and zimmer-framed jockey went out at a sprint which resulted in the start emulating a fish boil up in a mixer. Well, you will no doubt be aware of my aversion to being pummelled like a pilchard in a pot, so it resulted in my normal panic attack and moving to the side and waiting until the mass had gone past before I continued. I was to discover later that Adam Munday suffers the same affliction so we will jointly have to find a solution. Well the swim seemed to end before it started and it was a hurried run up the beach to the transition. I must say that I would like to meet the idiot, with the wicked sense of humour, who decided that we would have to run up and down the steps to get over the wall while trying to extricate oneself from a wetsuit. It was something akin to two teenagers trying to get their shirts off on the back seat of a Nissan micra.

The bike leg held oodles of promise as it was a flat course, no wind and drafting was allowed. Everybody was taking off like greyhounds after a rabbit trying to get into a group. What I soon realised was that my swimming ability was far superior to my cycling ability so I was out of the water before the serious cyclists. I was very intent on hooking on to one of these groups but very quickly learned that I had only started cycling again in January this year and got blown off the back of each group that came past averaging 40 kms per hour. The second issue with the cycle was that the earlier try-a-tri groups and relays were on the road weaving around at perilously slow speeds like drunken scholars on Queen St on a Saturday night. The cycle leg was like an Easter egg scramble in South Auckland with the adults bowling over the youngsters. Jeannie completed an excellent ride for her relay team completing a 40 km ride in 1:10. Well done that lady.

The run leg was out and back along Tamaki drive which was flat and hot. The pace was crazy, anybody would have thought the local school had received inside information that the legal highs were being made illegal and they were running to get the last stock. The positive was that we, as team mates, were all able to see and greet each other along the route. The end result was a successful day out for all as everybody finished. A special mention for Nicole Youman for a podium finish in her standard tri. That concludes the season and we will see how the winter training progresses.

Here are the results in all their glory:

Sprint Tri Results:

50 - 59 - Mike Harrison 1.10.28   11th Place
50 - 59 - Adam Munday 1.25.19   25th Place
40 - 49 - Murray Taylor  1.08.49   20th Place

Standard Tri Results:

20 - 29 - Nicole Youman  2.41.29  3rd Place
20 - 29 - Alex Viljoen 1.20.06   20th Place

Women's Team 2nd Place
Swim - Chrissy Penney 35.21
Bike   - Jeanie Smith     1.09.28
Run    - Rochelle Williams White 56.50

Mixed Team  7th Place
Swim  - Denise Munday 34.49
Bike    - John Alder   1.16.43
Run     - Neil Williams White 53.24

Monday, April 14, 2014

Medals Aplenty At State Ocean Swim Finale

Saturday saw perfect conditions for King of the Bays which was the final swim in the State Ocean Series for this season and also (for non-wetsuit swimmers) the National Masters Open Water Swim Champs.

Congratulations to everyone who swam this season. It's been a bumper! Special mention for Dan, Dawn, Liz and Avy who finished on the leaderboard in their age groups - no easy feat given this is now the countries largest swim event.

Thanks Dawn for sending in the results for King of the Bays, here they are.

I'm Going Long KOB 2.8km

Womens:
Avy 2nd in KOB          1st overall W 60-64
Liz- 3rd In KOB          2nd overall W 45-49
Dawn - 2nd in KOB    1st  overall W40-44
Tanya Sutton 1st ever State Ocean swim, completed the 2.8km W 40-44

Mens:
Pat Castles 7th in KOB,           5th overall in M 65-69
Vince Kirrane 10th in KOB M 55-59
Mike Harrison 10th in KOB M 50-54
Dave Donaldson 8th in KOB,  4th overall in M 50-54
Mark Cowling 9th in KOB M 50-54
Dave Bradding 20th (out of 116) in KOB M50-54
Grant Sykes 23rd (out of 91) in KOB
Giles Walker 8th in KOB,       overall 8th in M35-39
Dan Feisst 3rd in KOB,           overall 3rd in M 30-34

1km SWIMMERS
Allan Hawker (new to the club) 1st in M 30-39 , 15th finisher overall in the 1km swim







 

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Club Night Results Posted

Results from Wednesday's race night have been posted. 17 Swimmers were in attendance (where was everyone?). There were 6 new records set, all by the men, who were obviously on fire.

After the racing the usual lovely spread was put on and I tried to eat all the chocolate but I did have a piece of pineapple to justify it. I know I'm not the only one using this rationale. The wooden spoon was not given out but Swimmer of the Month was. Not surprisingly, it was awarded to the very awesome VINCE KIRRANE who is having the mightiest of seasons in the ocean. Vince has been smashing the opposition in every race he's been in this season. Great job Vince, keep it up!