You Are An Old Swimmer If You Remember This
Old-school veteran masters swimmers think back upon their swimming careers and can remember the following:
1. doing a pool workout without goggles
2. finishing a workout and seeing rainbow rings around all the lights
3. using only rectangular-shaped hand paddles were used
4. using only one type of white pull buoys was used
5. using handheld stop watches that require winding with a button at the top
6. training in workouts without a pace clock
7. owning a Belgrad suit
8. owning double-lined swimsuits with plunging necklines
9. sending a snail mail letter at the local post office in order to register for a swim or communicate with an escort pilot
10. when old-fashioned 20th century survey tools were used to mark open water courses
11. only using fins and snorkels in the ocean and not in a swimming pool
12. entering the annual Manhattan Island Marathon Swim without writing an essay
13. mailing in your entry forms to swim meets or open water races
14. receiving Popsicle sticks as you crossed the finish line at open water races
15. not warming down after a race
16. hydrating during workouts
17. thinking naked swimming meant skinny dipping
18. not imagining what vog is or knowing what yackers or GPS or trisuits or swickies are
19. thinking that zip lining was something you did in the forest or jungle on a vacation
20. thought swimcest was rare and illegal
21. not knowing what transponder, jammers, brown fat or gel packs are 22. not walking around or hydrating with a water bottle hought swimcest was rare and swickies were non-existent
23. remembering when no college swimming scholarships existed for women 24. using an EXER-GENIE® for dryland training 25. swimming between lane lanes that were simply ropes with an occasional buoy to keep the ropes afloat
26. training without backstroke flags and starting blocks were not angled towards the pool
27. swimming 3000 meters and thinking that was a long, tough practice
29. swimming in 33.3-yard or 55-yard pools n
30. diving onto the water, not into the water
31. sitting on wooden blocks in order to keep them from moving when a teammate did a racing start 32. pulling with a kickboard held between your legs
33. pulling with 1/2 kickboards with a rubber band around it
34. wearing multiple suits in order to purposefully creating additional drag in workouts
35. wearing thick white rubber swim caps even if you were a girl with short hair
36. eating jello powder and honey at swim meets
37. wearing wool suits and thinking the nylon swimsuits with a double panel in the front and a skirt were a big improvement
38. wearing your mother’s old nylons and t-shirts for additional drag
39. using lemon to treat green hair from the accumulated result of pool chlorine
40. buying Jello squares that were sold at the snack bar during swim meets 41. training with up to 20 swimmers per lane
42. swimming without lane ropes and not thinking anything was abnormal
43. using think black rubber band around your ankles for pulling
44. training without a swim cap
45. racing without a swim cap…or goggles
46. identifying blonde swimmers by their green-tinted hair
47. owning a pair of clear goggles because no colored goggles were sold
48. calling open water swims in Australia “Swim-Thru’s”
49. calling open water swims long distance swims or rough water swims
50. learning to swim in a bay, river, sea or ocean
51. swimming 800m or 1500m freestyle events around midnight because it was the last event on the program
52. eating loaves of white bread or donuts for carbo-loading
53. eating jellybeans or chocolate bars for instant energy in between heats and finals
And if you are really, really old, you can share the same recollection as International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame chairperson Ned Denison, “…knowing that there was a fallout shelter downstairs from the pool.”
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