Long-Distance Learning

Swimming is a lifetime sport. I swim regularly, teach swimming lessons to neighborhood kids in the evenings, and have competed in the local Senior Olympic games for the past two years. Last year, my goal was to compete in the 500-yard race. I did so about a month ago, won a silver medal, and was really proud of myself.

Now, because of a conversation I had with Warren Ward, regional manager for Tyco Plastics in Oxnard, Calif., my new goal is to swim 3,000 yards.

Three-thousand yards is about 1.7 miles. Warren swims this distance six times a week before the sun comes up. His goal is to swim 5,000 yards per day, and I don’t think he’ll have any trouble doing so, considering that he swims the length of six football fields as a warm-up exercise.

Warren swam competitively from when he was age 5 to 21. Warren says he was “typecast” as a distance swimmer early on. “For the most part, the other kids were faster,” Warren said, “but no one else wanted to swim distances. By default, I swam the long distances.”

Warren took a 29-year break from swimming, but in 2003 found his way back to the pool because of his 11-year-old son, Jeff: “Like most parents, I told my son he had to do something constructive in the summertime. Jeff decided to join a swim team.”

“The team practices from 7 to 9 every morning,” according to Warren. “So, I told Jeff I would go to the pool with him and swim when he did, to make sure he would get out of bed in the morning. Jeff swims on one side of the pool with his team, and I swim on the other side.”

While Jeff swims with the folks who are under 18 years old, Warren swims with the over-18 crowd, the Masters swimmers. Officially known as “United States Masters Swimming,” the national program has more than 40,000 members between the ages of 18 and 100 who swim in more than 1,100 workout groups and teams. Competitions are organized by age group.

Not content to swim just with other Masters swimmers, Warren swims with the younger set, too. “My son’s coach asked me if I wanted to work out with the team. So, I swim with the kids’ swim team when they do their distance workouts in order to help them learn to pace themselves by pacing off of me.

“Here’s the good news: I’m able to beat them,” said Warren.

Warren said the kids are not very happy when a 51-year-old guy out-swims them. Consequently, they work harder. Of the 70 members on the kids’ swim team, about four of them can now beat Warren in distance swimming.

I had a wild idea that I might challenge Warren to a race. After all, I have competed for the past two years in my local Senior Olympic swim meets. But, when Warren told me he swims a mile in about 22 minutes, I decided to wait to suggest a contest until I can expand my training.

Theoretically, I have about 50 more years to work on beating Warren in a race. Assuming, of course, that we’ll both still be swimming when we’re in the over-95 age group.

Gretchen Roufs, a 15-year janitorial supply industry veteran, owns Auxiliary Marketing Services of San Antonio. To suggest someone you think should be featured in “freetime,” email or contact her at (210) 601-4572.