Subs Are Due Please And Handicap Swim Coming

Subscriptions Due
It's that time of year and annual subscriptions are due. Subscription for the coming year remains at $60, same as this year. Please put your $60, cash or cheque, in an envelope with your name on it and hand it to John T by the end of the year. He only needs your email, phone and address if they have changed since you last gave them to John. On that note, if you have not been receiving emails chances are there is something wrong with the one we have for you (or our ability to read your handwriting). Please provide your email address again.

Open Water Handicap Swim and Picnic
You might want to put the 10th March in your diary, go do it now. On this date at Little Bucks we will be having our annual handicap o/w swim and picnic that we have been holding every year since next year. You can swim either 1 km or 2 km with or without a wetsuit and we will have trophies and spot prizes. Entry will be free but you will need to submit a 400m free time for handicapping purposes. Don't worry yet as there will be more info on entering coming later. The swim will be at 5.30pm and the bbq and prizegiving will be at 6.30pm. It would make it a whole lot simpler to cook the meat if there was a barbeque at the location so if anyone has a portable barbeque that would be suitable for cooking large(ish) quantities of meat could you please have a word to John?

Race Night Results Are Out

If you were at race night last night these are now posted on all the right pages (I hope!), results are on the results pages, records on records pages etc. We had 20 swimmers which is the usual numbers and 2 free lanes for those who wanted to do 'other stuff'.  3 New men's records were set, 2 ladies records and 1 relay record (good call do the medley relay by the way!).

While admiring some of the amazing times our men swam I looked up some of the NZ records for the men's 400 free. There was one thing that stood out in particular, the men's record for the 30-34 year age group is 4.23 and the record for the men's 55-59 year age group is 4.24. There are 25 more years and only 1 second difference. Think about that for a bit. Quite astounding really. This nicely illustrates that you don't have to slow down as you age, the challenge continues.

Swimmer of the Month
Denise Munday is our November Swimmer of the Month. Denise has lined up for the first time for the Kohi Swim Series and done it style, returning for more swims in the series. Denise has inspired others to take the challenge. Nice job Denise.

This Week's Club News

Max Fagerstroem
A 'send off' Cath Fagerstroem's husband, Max, will be held this coming Friday at 1pm at Maraetai Boating Club. Everyone is very welcome to attend and have a glass of champagne and a few nibbles while honouring Max and memories of him. Cath would be delighted to see you there. Maraetai Boating Club is at 188 Maraetai Drive.

December Birthdays
We have quite a bunch this month. Here are our birthday babes for December: Mark Cowling, Elliott Crawford, David Donaldson, Vince Kirrane, Lapo Nustrini, Angela Tomlinson, John Trubnick and Dawn Walker. If I've added up correctly that's 8 members blowing out candles this month. By my reckoning that's a cake being eaten every 4 days or so.

Race Night
The last race night for the year is this Wednesday the 5th. We are going long. Brace yourselves for the 400 Free (or IM). There will be a couple of spare lanes for swimmers to do their own training in.

State Harbour Crossing
We had what might well be a record number of entries from South City with 14 swimmers entered. Here are the results of our swimmers (apologies to anyone left off):

Giles Walker  49.15
Dave Donaldson  49.52,  3rd in age group
Grant Sykes  51.10
Dawn Walker  52.52, 3rd in age group
Avy Judelson  54.37, 1st in age group
Jon Flatley 55.40
Elliott Crawford  56.01
Liz Hayes   57.13
Tony Shacklock  1.01.20
Angela Tomlinson  1.01.55
David Walker 1.02.23
David Spencer 1.05.27
Angela Oliver 1.06.29
Anne Smith 1.20.42