East Lothian Masters Swimming

Sunday Times exposure for ELMS?

2007-05-10T09:26:00.000Z

Read this you lot:

<<
Hi there
i am hoping to write an article about masters lessons. i am looking for some information about what goes on in a class. what participants can hope to achieve etc. i am also very keen to speak to a couple of people who have joined your sessions within the last year. it would be great if you could put them in touch with me. i write a weekly column for the Ecosse section of the Sunday Times encouraging readers to have a go at something new (especially if it's healthy!).
thanks
Fi
Fiona Russell
Freelance journalist
0141 931 9054
07803 970 425 ________________________________________________________________________
>>

I've invited Fiona to talk to ME and take photos of ME with my 6-pack swim attire (from my good side only, holding my stomach in)

Seriously -- I have invited her to a session -- in the meantime, would anyone like me to pass their contact details to Fiona?

Regards,

Ian W Pettigrew
Club Secretary
East Lothian Masters Swimming
(01620) 810736
(07952) 270917
pettigrew@telecomplus.org.uk
http://www.telecomplus.org.uk/951165

Important: ELMS Special Meeting

2007-05-04T10:02:00.000Z

ELMS Special Meeting: Monday 21st May 2007 1900 hours @ Mercat Gait, Prestonpans

We are calling this Special Meeting of ELMS to discuss (see below, from John) the SASA's new position re triathletes.

Please notify me by e-mail of your intention to attend and pass the message on to any new members I may have missed, or who do not have e-mail.

sincerely,

Ian W Pettigrew
Club Secretary
East Lothian Masters Swimming
(01620) 810736
(07952) 270917
pettigrew@telecomplus.org.uk
http://www.telecomplus.org.uk/951165

<<
Hi Ian

Can you please contact all members possible, we need to arrange a special meeting asap. The SASA have now changed their veiw on Tri-athlon members, and all members must be a member of the SASA.
I am not too happy on this but we need to see which way we are going to go, if there is another option open to us.
I would suggest we hold it on the 21st May at the Prestonpans sports centre say from 19:00.

Cheers
John
>>

Scottish Masters Results

2007-04-25T19:08:00.000Z

Vew the results of the Masters Championships here http://www.swimhaddington.co.uk/2007ScottishMasterChampionshipResults.pdf

Fabulous Team Photo

2007-04-25T18:55:00.000Z

Who has the team photo from our Scottish Masters Championships. If you could send it to me at brad@peasebay.fsnet.co.uk I will post it on the Blog site.
Well done to everyone who took part you did ELMS proud.

Too tired to talk

2007-04-23T10:32:00.000Z

I developed a whole new level of respect for people, all sorts of people, at the weekend. Saturday night I was too tired to talk and had somehow managed to drive back from Glasgow without causing a major motorway incident. However I did have a little bundle of metalwork to clutch in my hand to cheer me along the route home. Competitive? Me? Well, what do you think?

The eight of us representing the East Lothian Masters who went to Tollcross to compete in the Scottish Masters on Friday and Saturday would like to think that we've arrived on the scene in style. The two younger ones have been competing at club level quite recently but for the rest of it was a whole new and humbling experience! Having raced (sorry, taken part) in triathlon over the last few years, I could not have believed how hard it would be to do a series of swimming races over a day and a half - after all, on a triathlon, it's non stop for (in my case) more than an hour and a half, and what can be so hard about swimming a few lengths of the pool with big long rests between races?

I suspect my cause wasn't helped by the virus I was incubating; my considered advice to the kids would have been that they shouldn't be racing. But hey, whoever listens to that sort of
advice? By length 5 of the 200m freestyle I was hanging on to the toes of the lady in the next lane but thinking I might die. By length 7 I could barely breathe, knew I was going to die and the toes in the other lane were going in the opposite direction. Strangely, I still seem to be alive. I found that the 200m, a distance I have never raced before, was by the far the hardest event as it is on the cusp between endurance and sprint. In contrast my first race was the 800m, very definitely endurance. I felt very calm before I hit the water but, halfway down the first length, the realization of what I was doing suddenly hit and my pulse rate rocketed. It took a few lengths to get things back under control and so my pacing and overall time weren’t great. I then lost count about halfway through but eventually could hear the ringing of distant bells. No, I wasn’t hallucinating; they were ringing for the final 50m – unfortunately mostly for other people. Mine seemed to be a long time coming. I’ll try harder next time!

By the time I got to the 50m freestyle at the end of Day 2, I felt like I really had very little left; a bit like the walk back up the road to the car after a long day in the hills. And when I say I have never raced the 200m before, what I really mean is that I have done no racing of this sort for over 30 years and even then not over the distances I was doing this weekend. Meanwhile, there were 80 and 85 year olds approaching the blocks with walking sticks, leaping into the water and setting new Scottish Records with abandon. If I'm still alive at 80 I'll be happy, let alone swimming butterfly. And so many people seemed to be racing all the strokes at all sorts of distances.

Well, how did we all do? Fiona won gold in the 200m breaststroke and bronze in the 100m. Brad won bronze in the 50m and 100m fly and was very cross that he was beaten in the 50m by only 2/100ths of a second. Sharon, in a very competitive age group, was 8th in the 50m fly. Martin, a cyclist turned triathlete turned swimmer, found the competition hard and pace judgement difficult and came 4th in the 400m free and 100m back and 9th in the 200m free. I took silver in the 800m free, bronze in the 400m & 200m free and came 4th in the 50m fly and 5th in the 50m free; my times weren't good but it was certainly a whole new experience. We also swam several relays with David and Susan coming over on Saturday just for those and our esteemed coach Jason making up the numbers and injecting some youthful pace! There was confusion (read "argument") about the eligibility of our relay teams as, in most of the races, we had one swimmer in the 18 - 25yr old category and it turned out that the whole team should be either under 25 or over 25 but not mixed. Oh well, we were only racing for the joy of it! By some fluke, however, we did collect gold in the womens' medley, despite my appalling efforts at 50m backstroke.

So we’ve won some medals, posted some times and shown the swimming world that there are swimmers east of Edinburgh. Let's hope everyone enjoyed it enough to enter some more meets and that next time we'll all have the confidence to enter more individual events. Thanks to Jason and John for organizing us all. And never mind t-shirts in team colours – what we need are team coloured sharkskin body suits. Then we can really strike fear into the opposition.

Scottish Masters Open Short Course Championships

2007-03-16T00:29:00.000Z

So who's going to this and do we do our own entries or enter as a group? And what events are you all going to enter?

Want to Improve your Swimming - Watch this !

2007-01-23T22:49:00.001Z

Want to be better swimmer ? Click this link then scroll down to "use your head to swim better" and watch the short video which will change the way you swim for the better..... Brad. http://videohost.evolvingmedia.org/ti_off/Immersion/flash-high.html

ELMS Meeting Sat 6th Jan 2007

2007-01-19T16:37:00.000Z

Hello,

This is a report of the ELMS meeting held at Musselburgh RFC on Saturday at 2000 hours.

Seventeen club members in total were in attendance and a big ‘Thank You’ goes out to John Sluman for organising this event and arranging for a highly enjoyable buffet.

Discussion Points

Bank Balance and Use of Funds

This section is based around the Treasurer’s Report as well as decisions made as a result of questions asked.

At the time of writing our balance is in credit to the sum of £869.97. There are around eight or nine members who pay by monthly Standing order.

Use of Funds: Club funds will be used towards part-financing up to four local competitions per year as well as purchase of essential equipment. This will be with a view to assistance with competition event fees, accommodation and travel.

Membership Fees for ELMS: £5.00 per annum, payable on or before 1st March 2007.

SASA Membership Fees: Full competitive membership of £22.75 (less for coaches who are already subscribed under Cat 3). You are advised to complete the attached form and send it in, with your payment, before the end of January – This is important because you will get up to 15 months’ membership from this payment and before the SASA review or change the fees at their meeting in the end of February.

ELMS will pay the £2.80 per member “training” element of SASA affiliation and your annual subscription payment will go towards this cost.

Other Discussion Points

Scottish Swimming National Raffle 2007: SASA will be sending me two books of raffle tickets per member – we can get more on request. Now I, for one, find selling raffle tickets a pain in the extremities; however, as ELMS retains 50% of all ticket sales then I would urge us all to make a special effort

Web Site / BLOG: Brad Robertson is going to look at the options here and discuss with John, Nick, and me.

Costumes, T-Shirts and other Regalia: We have a club crest designed and have chosen a two-tone blue as our club colours. We require the crest design put on CD as a medium towards embroidery on t-shirts. On this basis we have been quoted £16.50 for each polo shirt with logo.

I believe I could get a much more competitive quote and will be making enquiries with Fast Forward Scotland.

We decided that the wearing of club regalia is compulsory at all events and failure to do so will result in club members being required to compete in the altogether… That’s a joke and just to make sure you’re paying attention.

Competitions:

Silver City Blues Masters (Aberdeen) takes place on Saturday 3rd February 2007. An entry form is attached and the closing date for entries is Monday 15th January, so it’s perhaps too late for us to plan to travel here en masse; however, you’re free to enter and make your own travel plans if you wish.

Scottish National Open Short Course Masters Swimming Championships is held over 20th / 21st April 2007 at Tollcross, Glasgow. The entry form is attached and we see this as being our proper “debut” on the Scottish Scene.

Lomond Masters, Carlisle Masters, etc – I shall e-mail entry forms to all ELMS members as and when these become available. Keep checking http://www.scottishmasters.co.uk/ for updates on events, etc.

Fundraising Wine Tasting Event: Our very own Alan Frank is keen to host a wine tasting event at a venue and on a date soon to be confirmed.

Alan has found a natural comedy partner in Alistair “I’ve no e-mail” Paul so we can expect some side-splitting jolly japes and rosy-cheeked pursuits from these merry pranksters…

We are considering Musselburgh RFC as a location, or perhaps some huge kitchen in the large home of a massively rich person – like Nick Groome-Vine, for example.

Watch this space.

Best wishes,

Ian Pettigrew
Secretary
East Lothian Masters Swimming