A Day at the Races Dave Bennett The last time I swam competitively in a Gala was in 1992, I think, at the Student Long course nationals at Ponds Forge. I swam the 400m freestyle in some time over 5 minutes. Bearing in mind that the winning time in the final was probably around 4 minutes and a few seconds, I was clear of any danger of ending up on a winners’ rostrum. However, I have swum ever since, on and off, mostly for fitness and triathlon. I even won a swim run race at Bewl Water a couple of years ago – second fastest on the swim and second fastest on the run saw me clear at the end by about a minute overall. Of course I didn’t do the big boys race, so it was a smaller field. That swim was meant to be 1500m, but was a little short and the Chester Triathlon swim was a 1500m. It was not without some trepidation that I entered a much shorter race – 100 metres. I would have entered a 50m, but that’s only two lengths, and I am not the world’s best starters!   To the day. After we arrived and signed in we met some others we knew – Ian Pettit and Torren Peakman from Deal Tri. The warm up seemed somewhat chaotic. Too many swimmers of too varying a standard in too few lanes. Not much of a warm up. Then a long wait until the first event – the 100m breast stroke.   I was down for 1:30 – I had to guess something, so was very pleased with a 1:24. I beat Ian Pettit by about 2 seconds – never mind he beats me by at least 10 years. My first silver. I was soundly beaten by a Philip Bradley – he must have been in the next heat, and even on a good day he would have squashed me – he was over 8 seconds faster. Ian said I needed to practice my starts!   In the 100 freestyle, I was very pleased to get gold, given I don’t think I swam as quick as I should have done – 1:03 was OK, but I wasn’t puffed out enough – I could still talk. Next time I’ll get close to the 60 second. Starts and turns should do that I reckon!   In the IM I was drawn in the lane next to Ian, and on reflection I must have been in the lane next to my ‘nemesis’ Jean-Bernard. I was neck and neck with Ian, but Jean must have edged away – he beat me by half a second, but I beat Ian again. A second silver. Again starts and turns would make the difference.   The amazing thing about the Masters swimming is how few people are doing it in my age group. I could have picked up another gold in the 100 back stroke, just by entering it and swimming it! Another thing that struck me coming from a running background recently is that the warm up is effectively pointless. I had at least an hour between some of my events, so any physiological change from a warm up or race swim would have been lost. The biggest problems were trying to time when to eat and then knowing what to eat.   I’d encourage more people to enter Master’s swimming, especially if they aren’t that fast so they don’t beat me :-)   Breast Stroke 100m – Age 35-39 Place Name AaD Club Time     1. Philip Bradley 39 Gravesend 1:16.54     2. David Bennett 37 Broadstairs 1:24.70     3. Crozet Jean-bernard 35 Saxon Crown 1:29.66         IM 100m – Age 35-39 Place Name AaD Club Time     1. Crozet Jean-bernard 35 Saxon Crown 1:16.76     2. David Bennett 37 Broadstairs 1:17.23         Free 100m – Age 35-39 Place Name AaD Club Time     1. David Bennett 37 Broadstairs 1:03.97     2. Crozet Jean-bernard 35 Saxon Crown 1:04.16     3. Jim Burch 37 Hythe 1:12.44