Betsy Owens Results

[wmeg]

I was looking through the results of the Betsy Owens 2 mile swim and in the 60-64 mens this popped out at me

1 Mc Caffery, Michael G 60 The Olympic Club-38 19:30.00 44:34.17
2 Gianniny, Bruce 62 Niagara District-4 22:30.00 53:20.77
3 Laughlin, Terry 62 Adirondack Maste-3 22:25.00 53:25.61


What is this guy McCaffery, one of the xmen or something?
It was almost the fastest time overall.
Hasn't he heard of growing old gracefully?
Congrats to Terry, very good time about 4kph.

[swim2Bfree]

Originally Posted by wmeg

What is this guy McCaffery, one of the xmen or something?

Three cheers for Old Nassau!

Originally Posted by wmeg

Congrats to Terry, very good time about 4kph.

3.615 kph.

[terry]

Originally Posted by wmeg

I was looking through the results of the Betsy Owens 2 mile swim and in the 60-64 mens this popped out at me

1 Mc Caffery, Michael G 60 The Olympic Club-38 19:30.00 44:34.17
2 Gianniny, Bruce 62 Niagara District-4 22:30.00 53:20.77
3 Laughlin, Terry 62 Adirondack Maste-3 22:25.00 53:25.61


What is this guy McCaffery, one of the xmen or something?
It was almost the fastest time overall.
Hasn't he heard of growing old gracefully?

Very impressive swim indeed. I plan to blog my recap and lessons taken from this year's Betsy Owens this weekend. Haven't done it sooner because I've got a video to edit that I want to include and I have video-editing avoidance syndrome. Video editing and I seem to lack simpatico.

I was quite struck by his time. It's a minute faster than I've ever swum. I will say however that my fastest time on that course--45:40--was at age 54 and five months to the day after surgery to re-attach biceps tendon in my right shoulder. I'd only resumed whole-stroke swimming two months before.

I accessed a sort of black magic that day.

People in my age range who swim times like those done by McCaffrey, Jim McConica (who McCaffrey beat this summer in the USMS 2.4-mile championship), and Sandy McDonald often train with or like younger swimmers, racking up some serious yardage.
Shirley Loftus-Charley, who won the womens 60-64 at Betsy Owens and has been swimming faster the last few years than she did between her 30s and 50s, told me she swims up to 8000m a day with an age group team in Waynesboro VA.

I have no appetite for either that kind of yardage or for swimming with kids. However, I'm contemplating I may swim in FINA World Masters in Montreal next summer. Should I do that I'd probably raise my average weekly total of 15km (which drops below 10km in winter) to maybe 25km, a bit more than I was doing between ages 54 and 56.