Strange Happenings

If you were at training on Monday night you would have been involved in a strange but enjoyable session. After a brief warm up everyone was divided into teams for a 30 minute continuous relay, the object of which was to see how far the teams could swim in half an hour. Everyone swum freestyle and swum 50 metres at a time before changeover to a team mate. It was a close race and all 5 teams completed more than 2000 metres.

Here are the results. Team 1 swam in lane 1. I wonder how long they spent coming up with that hugely imaginative team name, hours I bet. Team 1 swam 2425m. Team 2 (equally creative with their team name) swimming in lane 2 swam 2395m. Team Spongebob from lane 5 swam 2145m. Team Durafast from lane 4 swam 2100m and not far behind was Team 4 (what's with the names?) from lane 4 with 2025m.

27 Swimmers took part, John T kept time and 4 or 5 club members counted so all in all more than 30 people were kept busy. The feedback has been positive and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Robyn M wants to do it as a half hour wine drinking relay next time. We'll consider anything Robyn; swim 50m drink wine, swim 50m eat a pie, we know where that one is going don't we?

Finally, just a reminder that if you are going to the Roskill meet in the mini-van please be at the Lloyd Elsmore Pool car park at 11.30am on Saturday.

Mini-van transport for Roskill meet

If you put your name down to travel by mini-van to the meet at Roskill next Saturday 12th May please meet at the Lloyd Elsmore Swimming Pool carpark at 11.30 am. The next thing you should do is get in it because the mini-van will be leaving shortly afterwards. Mike W has kindly offered to be the driver and he will make sure you get safely to Cameron Pool in time for the 12.30 pm warm up.

If you haven't been to a swimming pool meet before you might be wondering what to bring besides togs, goggles, swim cap and the clothes you wish to wear home. Here are a few ideas:

• 2 towels - one to keep you warm and dry between races and one to use after racing as the other one will be very soggy by then. If you have a chamois you will find it very useful.
• 2 t-shirts - likewise, they get very wet in between races and you don't want to get cold so have a dry one to put on.
• sweatshirt - even though it's warm in the pool area a wet body = a cold body.
• drink bottle - even though you are in the water, swimming is thirsty work. Beat dehydration. That goes for supporters too, swimming pool environments are dehydrating.
• a healthy snack - you can't race well if you are hungry. Avoid apples as they are high in fiber and difficult to digest. Bananas and creamed rice (not necessarily together!) are good choices.

Race Night Results Are Out. May Birthdays.

My apologies for the delay. I pretty much earned (yet another) wooden spoon by more or less wiping out half of the women's records table immediately before Blogger did an autosave (who asked for that by the way?). Barry has the records templates so...............some hours later it has been recreated, phew. We do miss Barry don't we?

Results are up and records have been amended. There were 9 new individual records but no new relay records this time around.

Races were followed by a light supper and the awards. The wooden spoon was awarded to Denise Munday for her inability to find her earplugs in her own ears. She'll be looking for her goggles next. I hope she doesn't lose her togs, that could be truly embarrassing. The Swimmer of the Month was yours truly for rolling back the clock 10 years in the 400IM at the nationals. There's nothing like getting younger is there.

I might be getting younger but some folk are getting older (oops, that's not tactful is it?). There are only 4 people celebrating birthdays in May. Perhaps May isn't a popular month but these 4 people are very popular and we would like to wish them a very Happy Birthday - Diane Grogan, Fiona Grigg, David Jamieson and David Warburton.

Don't Miss Out!

Entries close very soon for the Roskill Masters hosted Auckland Short Course swim meet. This is a really fun meet that anyone can enter no matter your swimming level and we would love it for as many of you as possible to join us at Cameron Pool for a fun afternoon of swimming (and supporting and eating) on 12th May. There is an extension for entries until Tuesday so you still have plenty of time.

Here is where you go to get an entry form:

Auckland Short Course Swimming Champs

Why should you enter? For starters, you get a whole afternoon of my dazzling company, but if that isn't enough to entice you then read on:

• We are going to drive you there for FREE in a mini-van. Yes, we are eco-friendly and saving fossil fuels. Travel with a friend (quite a few friends in fact).
• Club contribution of $10 towards a meal on the way home. The mini-van will be stopping at an eatery (possibly the Zookeepers Son) and your meal will be subsidised.
• Put that club swimming cap to good use. It's not just a wallet you know.
• An opportunity to use that club night practice.

So support South City Masters, support swimming and support Roskill Masters and their swim meet - get your entry in today.

Check out the photo gallery as there are some more photo's.

Results From National Masters Swimming Champs 2012

Last weekend 5 of our swimmers went to Kilbirnie Pool in Wellington to contest the Nationals. Fiona Grigg, Mark Cowling, Mike Harrison, Avy Judelson and Deryn McGregor had a very successful competition. Between them they won 11 gold, 7 silver and 4 bronze medals; that's 22 medals total. Not a bad haul for 5 swimmers! 3 of them got very close to national records but, alas, will have to wait for the next meet for more attempts.

As usual, the team did well in relays, especially the 4 x 50 mixed freestyle being not overly far off the record in their age group there either and beating out all others including younger teams.

Not surprisingly, John T was seconded as an official and was a superb marshal throughout the meet. John G was a magnificent supporter and chief photographer. If you want to check out some photos there are a few posted over on the gallery page.

March Swimmer of the Month, April Race Night Results

March Swimmer of the Month
Wasn't hard to guess was it? Dave Donaldson has been performing exceptionally well right throughout the ocean swimming season starting with a 2nd placing in his division in the State sponsored Harbour Crossing on 13th November 2011 and carrying on right through the season with uncanny consistency. Competition in his age group was ferocious to say the least and Dave finished the State Ocean Swim Series with a podium finish - 2nd in his division overall. Magnificent!

Hot on his heels, Liz Hayes and Pat Castles were doing their best not to be overshadowed. Liz gained a well-deserved podium finish also with a 3rd in her division and Pat was 4th in his, missing the podium by a measly 1.5 points (you'll get them next year Pat). An honourable mention also for Ross Faulkner who managed to buck the trend in the Rangitoto swim by beating his previous years time when everyone else was considerably slower.

That marks the end of ocean swimming season for a few months. It has been a very successful one for all our sea swimmers and we have great things to look forward to next season. In the meantime, a big thanks to Dave D for taking charge of the Saturday sea swims, you can have a little rest now.

April Race Night
There was a lot happening race night wasn't there? We started off with The Wall postal swim - some very good times posted there and we shall look forward to the results. We still managed to get through 4  events and some relays so there was a lot of swimming for the 21 swimmers. 14 new records were set. Results are up on the results page because that seems like a good place to put them and records are on the records pages. A big thanks as usual to our hard working timekeepers, marshals and starter. Thanks for the yummy food too John.

News Bonanza

First up, don't forget that daylight savings end this weekend. So before you go to bed on Saturday night wind your clocks back by 1 hour. You get an extra hour of sleep Sunday morning. Angela O, if you turn up to training on Sunday morning and there is no one there, oh that's right, we've done that one already.

Another treat for Sunday is Avy will be coaching freestyle body positioning for the last 15 minutes of the session. You can choose to do relays or go see Avy and have some coaching. It's all happening this Sunday isn't it - sleeping in, coaching, coffee and muffins with fine company!

Race Night
Yes it's race night on Wednesday 4th April. Events are 25 Br or 25 Free (your choice), 50 Free, 100 Back and 100 IM or 100 Free (your choice). We will have a couple of lanes spare for general training. There is no charge on race night.

King of the Bays
King of the Bays is on this Saturday. We have a number of swimmers who have been competing all season in the State sponsored Ocean Swim series which is winding up this weekend. The weather forecast is looking good and some great times are on the cards. We wish all our ocean swimmers the best of luck for King of the Bays and look forward to the results not only of this swim but of the series.

April Birthdays
I love birthdays, especially when they are other peoples. These are the 'other people' who are going to enjoy cake and candles during April: David Spencer, Rozanne Valcarcel, Margaret Bell, Christine Della Barca, Catherine Fagerstroem, Ross Faulkner, Anne Legg and Jeannie Smith

Cycling News
Good luck also to Lapo Nustrini and Jeannie Smith who are riding in the Rotorua to Taupo 100km Flyer this weekend. Makes me tired thinking about it!

March Race Night Results, Swimmer of the Month

March race night results have now been posted on the results page so you can check out your times. We had 20 swimmers. For the first time swimmers could choose to swim the 25 and 50m events as freestyle rather than the 'other stroke' if they preferred. This proved popular with a lot of swimmers taking up this option.

Next up was the presentation of awards. Angela Oliver worked very hard to win the wooden spoon, even getting up extra early one Sunday and showing up to an empty pool. Too much trouble for a spoon I say. However, she may have even more trouble wresting the spoon from Gustav. Gustav loves the spoon so much he won't give it up.

Swimmer of the month award was hotly contested. So hot in fact we have a couple of honourable mentions. First honourable mention is Jo Cook who has won the 1500m category in at least one of the Kohi swims. That isn't just 1st in her age group but 1st woman overall. Well done Jo. Also an honourable mention to Mike Harrison. Mike has been swimming extremely well in the ocean swims all season but, as luck would have it, is in what is almost certainly the most difficult age category for this kind of thing. You would probably have to be an Olympian to win that age group so awesome work from Mike too.

Onto the main award though. One swimmer stood out - Avy Judelson. She has not only been swimming week after week to a consistently high standard at the Kohi Swim Series, winning her age group but she has also been coming in ahead of women who are, shall we say, in age groups not the same as hers. She just gets better and better.

Remember, nominations for swimmer of the month come from YOU. Yes you. If you want to nominate someone, drop me a line. If you notice someone doing something spectacular, in or out of the pool, don't be shy, send in a nomination. Also, I don't choose who wins. If there is only one nomination then there's your winner. If there is more than one nomination then the committee vote.

Deja Vu

Weren't we here yesterday?

It is March now, and that means we have birthdays. Also, a report from the Rangitoto swim, courtesy of Waldo Shacklock.

March Birthdays
Yes, it's March and that means birthday time for Grant Sykes, Jason Grant, Bronwyn Dent, Ken Main and Angela Oliver. These people deserve a bit of pampering on their special day so next time you see them be sure to be extra nice (aren't we always).

Rangitoto Swim
Tony has sent in a report from the Rangitoto Swim. This is an epic swim on the ocean swimming calender and if you have never done it is one you might want to seriously think about notching up. Here is the report:

This news is a bit old, but the annual Rangitoto Swim last weekend attracted a good number of South City Masters swimmers this year. It was a fairly uneventful, but deceptively hard swim. The night before was spent listening to the wind and rain, wondering if it would be cancelled. However, the (early!) morning turned out to be as calm as it ever has been, so all looked good for the swim as long as the wind didn’t pick up. The water stayed flat for the most part, but there were patches of choppy water where the wind whipped it up a bit. Although the wind wasn’t very strong, its direction was directly head on, so that was probably the reason it was quite a hard swim. Most people’s times were about 8-10 minutes slower than last year (including the winner’s), although there was a notable exception – Ross Faulkner improved his time by over 10 minutes. Well done that man! The sun stayed out for the prize giving, but unfortunately nobody from South City Masters won a prize. Here are the results:

Richard Smith               1:06.00             4th place
Mark Clavey                  1:17.44
David Donaldson          1:18.12
Liz Hayes                      1:21.56
Elliot Crawford              1:23.42
Pat Castles                   1:27.44
Ross Faulkner               1:29.12
Vince Kirrane                 1:33.01
Tony Shacklock            1:34.00
Angela Tomlinson          1:42.48
Barry Cribbens              1:47.06
 
Thanks Tony, keep up the good work.

Put This Date In Your Diary

21st March, 7pm at the cafe area of the pool.

Why? This is when we will be holding the AGM. You need to be there. Barry has emailed everyone with the agenda and also a nomination form. If you want to nominate someone for committee, or yourself, don't be shy, fill out the form and give it to Barry D. Nominations will also be accepted on the night.

Race Night
We have race night this Wednesday 7th March at 7pm. There is a change to the format that we think you will love, especially if you are a lover of freestyle; and why wouldn't you be. So....where there is a short race on the menu (25m or 50m) you can choose to do freestyle instead of the 'other' stroke. Good isn't it?

Events this race night are 25m Back or Free, 50 Fly or Free, 100 Breast and 200 Anything (not hopscotch, that's not a stroke). Light refreshments afterwards with presentation of the coveted wooden spoon and Swimmer of the Month trophy.

Roskill Masters Annual Swim Meet
This is a fun meet to go to so let's all get together and swarm en masse to Cameron Pool on 12th May for this short course meet. None of the races are over 100m so it's all short stuff. We are looking to hire a van to get us there so directionally-challenged people don't get lost, or distracted by Ollies. On the way home we shall stop for a meal somewhere so we can boast to each other about our amazing feats in the pool. The club will contribute $10 per head towards the meal. We love supporters, the more cheering the better, it makes us feel special. If you are a supporter, we want to see you.