British Swimming Masters Championships 2023

                                                          

 

 “Are you racing at the weekend?” asked the Head Coach as I plodded along with a kickboard during my swim down on Wednesday morning. I’m sure he regretted asking – when I proceeded to rattle off a million reasons that I wasn’t sure it was a good idea, how I’ve not entered events I’m particularly keen on, not trained as much as I’d like, that I’m top of my age group and have a hospital appointment in London on Friday morning which meant I might not make it up to Sheffield in time for the 100 back early afternoon.

Excuses out of the way I started to pack. I’ve previously written about the faff of packing now I’m a bit older and this occasion was absolutely no exception! I sent a message to my team mates WhatsApp group to seek reassurance that it wasn’t just me that now simply cannot travel without far more than just swim kit alone. I first declared myself ‘old’ when I realised I could no longer travel without my own cafetiere and filter coffee – hotel room instant simply doesn’t cut it against 07:45 warm ups and 3 sessions a day weekends! As it turns out, I’m not alone; one team mate always takes his own tea bags and we had to make a detour on the way back from dinner on the first night for peppermint teabags for another. I suspect we were the only people in Sheffield’s city centre Sainsburys purchasing these on a Friday night!

Despite being a member of Team Luton for 4 years now, this was only my 2^nd Nationals trip away. The 1^st was short course in October 2021. I quickly remembered that what I’d really signed up for was copious amounts of tea breaks, rudely interrupted by the need to go and warm up, followed by swims and then meals out. That’s Nationals in a nut shell. 

 

Hanging onto the side of the pool for dear life after the 400m!

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 I did make it in time for my 100 back – thanks to a train strike and rescheduled hospital appointment. I wasn’t sure if I was particularly grateful when I could hardly stand at the end and my team mate and I had to walk the entire length of Ponds Forge to the swim down pool on total jelly legs. However, once I could finally make it up what seems a million stairs back to where we’d sat, I was starting to feel pleased with the swim itself. For some reason, once we were under starters orders and I put my feet on the ledge as I’ve done many times before, my brain suddenly decided to think the following: “what if your goggles fall off?”. Not once in 35 years of racing backstroke have I ever had a goggle malfunction off the start (swimsuit malfunction and indecent exposure at the turn because of it - yes!!). After that, everything after the start felt like a small victory!

 My swims were beyond my expectations, but I won’t remember these Nationals for my swims. It’ll be;

1) Watching my team mates and friends racing well, winning medals and supporting each other – knowing the effort they’ve put in and the challenges they’ve overcome.

2) Acknowledging that staying the night after our final race is definitely way forward. Being able to drink afterwards (my breathing isn’t as big a fan of alcohol as I am, so I have to be really careful in the build up to competitions) and getting to know each other away from the pool was lovely.

3)  Catching up with friends that I raced throughout my youth.

4) Watching 80+ year olds swim 200m fly long course and feeling truly humbled.

5) Small wins- such as not putting my back out shoe-horning myself into a race suit and remembering my undies when I arrive in a swimsuit for warm up!