February 5, 2023
By Vic “the Fatman” Pace
Hello everyone,
Today’s swim event took place at the beautiful Bellevue Club in Bellevue, WA. As usual for the great Pacific North-Wet, it was raining, with just a bit of chill to shiver yar bones, aaarrrggghh!!
For this year’s event, there were only 63 swimmers allowed to swim. I think in part due to Covid-19 precautions and because there were other activities happening at the pool before the event started. If you’ve been to the Bellevue Club pool, you know that there are two pools there with a divider separating them. There is a shallow pool, which I believe is 5’ ft. deep, and the competition pool, which is 9’ ft. deep. During the competition, we had some great swimmers doing an awesome job completing the 1-mile swim. And in the shallow pool, we had some great families with kids, and they were having the best time, like it was the “Wolf Lodge”. It had everything except the water slide, lol.
For the TWIM Team, we had a total of five folks signed up. But only four were able to attend.
Women team members were Kathy Pelham, and Valerie Thompson
Men team members were Dan Underbrink, Carl Haynie, and Brad Jones. Unfortunately, Brad was unable to attend.
We also met a young man by the name of Jackson Rittenhouse, who may, or may not become a TWIM Member. But, in good spirits, he swam with us.
Also, I need to mention the TWIM members and family members there for support. Tom Walker, Steve Fogg, Mary Underbrink, Holly Lickwala (who was there as an “Officiant Official”, lol, I know that’s not the real title, but she was there officiating the swim event) and last but not least, me.
This pool was about 80 degrees, which was a perfect racing temperature, and which helped the swimmers not overheat.
It was great seeing everyone again. Tom is always so inspiring and funny. He keeps you on your toes trying to see where he is going on some of the conversations you have with him. But he is a well of information when it comes to swimming and his advice on how to get better is invaluable.
The swim started at 1300 hours (or 1:00 p.m. for our non-military folks). The heats were seeded fastest to slowest, which is great if you want to swim and go home early, lol, but the TWIM team stayed together to the end, supporting each and every one on the team.
Our swimmers’ times were:
Kathy Pelham: 22:05.48 Valerie Thompson: 39:20.45
Carl Haynie: 22:41.54 * Dan Underbrink: 25:17.08
* Note: Carl would have been about a minute faster, but since he was recovering from a Covid incident, he had to stop for an espresso/cappuccino for the last lap. His explanation was that the lane next to his was ahead in the number count, and he knew that he was faster than that swimmer, so he added 1 or 2 laps to what was on his lane and finished before he was supposed to. But he got help from Holly (who was officiating) when she ran over to Carl and said “Keep Going!! – You’re not done yet!!”
Also, for Jackson Rittenhouse: 24:26.21 (possible new TWIM member).
Others, besides TWIM, were swimming in this event. Notably, there was a young man by the name of Willard Lamb, from down Oregon way. He is 101 years old and did the 1-mile swim in 41:34.39. Talk about motivation!! Another familiar Oregon swimmer, Mr. Dan Kirkland swam an age group World Record in the 1500 and logged two more World Records with his splits at 400 and 800 meters!
Well, until next time, may the current carry you further and may the sun meet you at the end.
