If you are a member of the Pirates, and know of some open water competitions that you would like posted here, let your coaches know or contact Cokie with the comment form below. It helps if y0u can provide the link to the event.

• Open Water Swim May 19^th at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa. A 1-mile swim. Not yet linked on the Pac Masters website.
• Open Water 101 Clinic put on my Pac Masters on May 20^th. Location tba. Not yet linked on the Pac Masters website.
• Open Water Swim June 2^nd at Lake Berryessa. This is a BIG open water swim, attracting hundreds of masters swimmers. The water can be cold and rough and this swim is not recommend for first time open water swimmers unless they are strong. They offer a 1-mile and 2-mile and USA swimmers also have a division. Not yet linked on the Pac Masters website. This swim is hosted by Davis Aquatic Masters. You can also keep an eye on their website for information on this swim.
• Open Water Swim June 9^th at Lake Del Valle. Our first regional offering of both a 5K and 10K swim in a lake with very comfortable water temps. Not yet on the Pac Masters website.
• Open Water Swim June 10^th also at Lake Del Valle. This should be their traditional 1K and 3K swim. Not yet linked on the Pac Masters website.
• Open Water Swim July 7^th at Russian River, a 1-mile swim. Not yet linked on the Pac Masters website.
• Open Water Swim September 9^th at Whiskeytown Lake (1 and 2-mile offerings along with USA Division). Gorgeous venue and well run event. Not yet linked on the Pac Masters website.
• Open Water 2×1 Relay September 15^th hosted by Manatee Masters. Location tba. Not yet linked on the Pac Masters website.

The 2012 Short Course Yards (SCY) season runs Jan thru May. The Long Course Meters (LCM) season runs May-August. The Short Course Meters (SCM) season runs August through December. The Open Water season runs roughly April through October. (See the separate link for the 2012 OWS Competition Schedule in the right sidebar.)

• January 2012. One Hour Postal (can be done at IVC and needs to be completed by last day of January). In 2011 the Pirates dedicated two workouts to this and had 17 swimmers compete. The team wound up 4^th in the nation for small teams.  http://www.usms.org/longdist/ldnats12/OHPentry.pdf and registration at: https://www.clubassistant.com/club/meet_information.cfm?c=1308&smid=3291
• Jan 21, 2012. The Olympic Club 1500 SCM Swim Meet. Consists of the 1500 SCM only. Indoors. https://www.clubassistant.com/club/meet_information.cfm?c=1795&smid=3416
• Jan 22, 2012. Fog City Quadrathon at St Ignatius High in SF. Indoors. Consists of the 50, 100, 200, 500 Free. We’ve gone a few years now to this one. http://www.pacificmasters.org/comp/pool_meetsheet/12fogscy.pdf
• February 11, 2012. USF Valentine’s Affair SCY Meet (50s, 100s and a 200 Mixed Medley Relay). The Pirates took 21 swimmers in 2011. Great meet – indoors! https://www.clubassistant.com/club/meet_information.cfm?c=1416&smid=3497
• March 4, 2012. Strawberry Canyon Invitational at UC Berkeley meet. Some 50s, 100s and 200s along with 500 free. Outdoor meet, often chilly! We generally have a fair Pirate turnout at this meet. http://www.pacificmasters.org/comp/pool_meetsheet/12scamscy.pdf
• March 10, 2012. The Bay Area Senior Games at Stanford. Open to swimmers 50+. If swimmers want to compete in the National Senior Games (2013 Cleveland, OH), they need to qualify at this meet. The Pirates took 7-8 swimmers to this meet last year. www.bayareaseniorgames.org
• March 17, 2012. Rinconada Spring Meet SCY in Palo Alto. Mix of events including the daunting 1650 Fly that Jim Larson did last year. Outdoors. http://www.pacificmasters.org/comp/pool_meetsheet/12rincscy.pdf.pdf
• March 30 through April 1^st, Pac Masters SCY Champs. I think they are held at Campolindo High School in Moraga this year, a brand new venue. Lots of turnout for this meet the last two years. https://www.clubassistant.com/club/meet_information.cfm?c=1301&smid=3492
• April 26-29, 2012 USMS Spring National Champs (SCY) in Greensboro, NC. I know you’ll probably get a few swimmers at this one. We took 7 to last year’s Nationals in AZ. http://www.usms.org/comp/scnats12/
• USMS 2012 Check Off Challenge: http://www.usms.org/fitness/content/checkoff   This is a “postal” event or meet event. Swimmers are challenged to swim all 18 events offered in a SCY meet throughout the year at swim meets or at workouts. In 2011 the Pirates took on an additional challenge and did this in one workout last year at the end of May. 28 Pirate swimmers took up the challenge and it was a great experience for the team. Two variations of how to tackle that are in Cokie’s DropBox of workouts.
• FINA World Masters Championships (LCM) held June 10^th-17^th in Riccione, Italy. The Masters World Champs are held every other year. The 2014 offering will be Montreal, Canada. A few swimmers hoping to go are Jim Zuur, Richard Alejandro, Alan Bernard, and possibly Erica Sutherland and Kate Thorp. http://www.finamasters2012.org/
• July 5-8, USMS National LCM Champs in Omaha, NB. With Olympic Trials occurring the week before, it is expected that this will be a large Nationals. http://www.usms.org/comp/lcnats12/
• SCM Meet September 23^rd in Mountain View. We’ve had Pirates there the last few years.  Not yet linked on the Pac Masters website.
• SCM Meet Oct 7th at UC Davis – a pentathlon (50s each stroke, 100 IM and a relay opportunity). We’ve had swimmers there the last few years.  Not yet linked on the Pac Masters website.
• Pac Masters SCM Championships, Oct 12-14 in Walnut Creek. We had 21 there this year and placed 4^th. Great meet! Not yet linked on the Pac Masters website.
• SCY Meet Dec 1^st in Reno. Tiny meet with low attendance. Not yet linked on the Pac Masters website.
• Southern Pacific Masters Swimming SCM Championships in Long Beach. A very large and popular meet (sometimes as high as 900 masters swimmers). Generallly held the first weekend in December at the Belmont Plaza. We had 3 swimmers attend this meet this year. Not yet linked on the Southern Pacific Masters Swimming website: http://www.spmasterswim.org

Yahoo! The IVC pool opens earlier than expected. The team’s website calendar on this website has been updated to reflect that change. Look for our Calendar Tab at the top of the page.

100 Club December 2011

We had 15 workouts in December. Our Top 3 in December practice attendance were:

1. Kim Bauer, 13
2. Stacey Ellison, Katie Lee , Terri Leinsteiner & Alison Oblites, 9
3. Lori Johnson, Terry Powers & Nancy Raabe, 8

Life cumulative winners (spanning our beginning on July 13, 2009) are listed below and a full report can be found here. Lifetime thru Dec 2011.xlsx

1. Kim Bauer, 615
2. Terry Powers, 359
3. Regina Rus, 314
4. Bryce Cruse, 277
5. Jim Larson 273
6. Terri Leinsteiner, 263
7. Cathy Stone, 262
8. Lynn Forsey, 256
9. Karen Johnson, 228
10. Stacey Ellison & Sarah Fergot, 222
11. Shari Cruse, 210
12. Kate Thorp, 207
13. Yaron Palfy, 202
14. Sarah Koenig & Erica Sutherland, 200
15. Carolyn Blom & Mike Stone , 192
16. Clare Devincenzi, 183
17. Shannon O’Hare, 180
18. Lori Johnson, 179
19. Cassandra Coffee, 171
20. Susie Powell, 166
21. Roy Johnson, 155
22. Betty Rasmussen, 149
23. Nancy Raabe, 147
24. Kate Novak, 140
25. Asunta Pacheco-Kennedy, 136
26. Justin O’Reilly, 134
27. Dawn Kovell, 130
28. Jeanette Pilgaard, 127
29. Jared Gouldy, 115
30. Karen Freemantle, 113
31. Eric Lambert, 112
32. Kelly Wiley, 112
33. Karen Santiago, 108
34. Laura Woodhead, 102

Here’s the December 2011 attendance report for the curious.December 2011.xlsx

With 323 workouts in 2011, our  Top Cumulative Attendance Winners for the year are listed here. Prizes were awarded to the Top 10. 2011 Cumulative thru Dec.xlsx

1. Kim Bauer, 259
2. Stacey Ellison, 173
3. Katie Lee, 169
4. Terri Leinsteiner, 151
5. Clare Devincenzi, 134
6. Terry Powers, 132
7. Regina Rus, 130
8. Rachel Rempe, 129
9. Shannon O’Hare, 128
10. Karen Johnson & Kate Thorp 125
11. Justin O’Reilly, 120
12. Erica Sutherland, 115
13. Sarah Fergot, 113
14. Bryce Cruse, 112
15. Lynn Forsey, 106
16. Susie Powell, 104
17. Jim Larson, 98
18. Dawn Kovell, 97
19. Karen Santiago & Cathy Stone, 96
20. Sarah Koenig, 90
21. Karen Fremantle, 85

Here’s the total number of bodies in practice each month for 2011.

There is so much to say to all of you.

More than anything else I want to thank every one of you that has come through our masters program these past 2-1/2 years. For some of you, thank you for giving swimming a try. Whether you came from a Tri background, running background, ballet background or even no athletic background, you were brave to jump in and give this a go and I hope I’ve kindled in you a love for swimming. To others of you, thank you for returning to swimming, a sport of your youth. I hope we have rekindled a passion for this beautiful sport and that you “swim for life”. To all of you, thank you for what you’ve done to grow this team and make it one that is indeed, very special.

Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your life, to help you with your swimming and fitness goals. Getting up somewhere around 4:30 a.m. to come to a 5:30 a.m. practice takes a heck of a lot of dedication on your part. Coming to night practice after a long day of work isn’t always so easy either. Sometimes, it just seems easier to curl up and go back to sleep or to point that car toward home. But you came, over and over. Our “Club Tally” is testament to that! And when you did, you always brought a smile to my face. You watched your bodies change as you adapted to this new fitness routine. You saw your times drop in sets at practice, your breathing grow stronger, and your stamina for longer sets and longer yardage increase month by month. You mastered swimming different strokes, changing energy zones, and even discovered how far you can push yourself. You are continuously evaluating and resetting goals and that is fantastic!

Watching you all at practice these past few months has been so fulfilling. To see how advanced each of you has gotten in your own swimming knowledge and stroke skills is so freakin’ cool! You should see how good you all are. If I were to do it all over again, I would film each person at their first practice, and then film them again “down the road” so they could see the progression that I saw each time I stood on deck.

So many incredibly wonderful times and memories at swim practice, swim meets, open water swims, or even team social events. Thanks to Facebook along with all the pictures, videos and stats we gathered, we have chronicled quite a history in just 2.5 years. I will always cherish those times and those memories.

The make up of this team is quite special, we’ve all talked about it. Gosh knows how cultures get built, but this culture is just amazing to me. I’ve been around Masters Swimming for 22 years and on a few teams myself as a swimmer. The camaraderie and warmth of this team is beyond comparison. The friendships formed are awesome and we will be “gutter buddies” forever. Thank you for embracing new members and taking them under your wings. Thank you for helping each other out (and me!) on tough days or through some of life’s rougher events. Thank you for cheering on each others’ successes and for celebrating the good times with each other, too!

Thank you for your amazing, steadfast and phenomenal support of me. That has kept me going so often! Thank you for training me as a coach. I came to you inexperienced and armed with loads of passion and a little knowledge. Together we learned and together we grew to a team of 133 registered swimmers in 2.5 years. Wow! Thank you for your patience as I experimented with crafting workouts, tried out gosh-knows-how-many drills on you all, and did my best to make your swimming experience so much more than just a 75-minute workout. I learned bunches and bunches from all of you and I am forever grateful.

New coaches Jeremy and Mehrad are ready to grab the reins and I hope you all embrace them. Some things will remain the same, some things may be different and that really is okay. Change can be unsettling, but change is not inherently bad. One of my favorite quotes is this: Change always comes bearing gifts.

Your gift is two very talented coaches and I, for one, think you are in good hands. Like me, they will need to learn from you. It is you, the swimmers, that are the heart and soul of this team. The culture of this team, the direction of this team, that comes from you. So embrace these new guys as they get to know you and get to know masters swimming.

If I’ve left any legacy at all, it is my wish that you all stay in the water. It really is a sport you can do through the ages.

I will be leaving for Arizona soon, but I will return for visits! And when I do, you’ll see me at some practices, some swim meets and open water competitions. And if you are ever in AZ, please let me know so we can arrange a reunion.

Bless you all and thank you for absolutely everything you have done for me. Treasure the Times Pirates, treasure the times!

Cokie

Records for individual swimmers are listed in the table below.

For relay records, scroll to the bottom of this screen.

Women 19-24 Team Records SCM

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Women 25-29 Team Records SCM

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Women 40-44 Team Records SCM

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Women 45-49 Team Records SCM

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Women 50-54 Team Records SCM

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Women 55-59 Team Records SCM

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Men 19-24 Team Records SCM

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Men 30-34 Team Records SCM

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Men 35-39 Team Records SCM

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Men 40-44 Team Records SCM

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Men 45-49 Team Records SCM

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Men 55-59 Team Records SCM

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Men 60-64 Team Records SCM

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Men 65-69 Team Records SCM

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Men 70-74 Team Records SCM

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Relay Records

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MPM Short Course Meters Team Relay Records

It’s a wrap for 2011! Our Marin Pirates Masters swimmers competed in a WHOPPING 20 meets this year, attending at least one meet every single month of the year. My goal was to have Pirate representation at 80-90% of these meets and we achieved 100%. A Pirate swam in every meet offered in Pac Masters and even beyond – Southern California, Arizona, Tennessee, Texas, and all the way to Alabama.  Impressive!

Reno Winners SCY Meet 12-4-11

SPMA Short Course Meters Champs, Long Beach, Dec 2-4, 2011

MTSU Blue Wave Raiders Invitation Swim Meet Results, Oct 2011

2011 Pac Short Course Meters Champs

Sac Pentathlon Swim Meet Results Table

Mountain View Swim Meet Results Table

5th Annual MAAC (Modesto) SCM Meet

Davis LCM Meet

2011 USMS Long Course Nationals

The second Long Course Meters Meet of the season (our 11th meet of the year) was our Pacific Masters Championships at UC Santa Cruz, July 8-9-10. Each swimmer had a standout race. Erica’s was her 50 breast where she attacked it! Alan’s had to be the 200 Fly where he shaved off 6 seconds off his best time and took first place, this after struggling somewhat in his 100 Fly the day before. Kate’s was her first time ever 100 back. She wiped out the heat and had almost enough time for a full warm down while the others finished. Jim’s was his 50 backstroke where he set a new personal best, and beat his rival, which he had never done. This picture definitely reflects his joy!

Pac 2011 LCM Champs Meet Results

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2011 National Senior Games

The ninth meet of the year, and first Long Course Meters meet, was held in San Mateo on Sunday, June 26th at their new pool.

San Mateo Founder's LCM Meet

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The eighth meet of the year was the Wine Country Senior Games in its inaugural year.

Wine Country Senior Games Meet Results

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The seventh meet of the year was our National Championships. This year’s USMS Short Course Yards Nationals were held at the Kino Aquatic Center in Mesa, AZ. Here’s a photo from Mary Ellen Bohnsack of the 7 who competed at the Nationals. Meet results follow in the table here. Videos and pics posted on SmugMug. Look for the GalleryVideos & Pics 2011 USMS SCY Natls AZ. Full results of the meet can be found here.

Terry, Erica, Alan, Kate, Cokie, Jim and Cassandra

USMS SCY National Champs April 2011

The sixth meet of the year for the Pirates was the Pacific Masters Swimming Short Course Yards Championships held in Pleasanton April 8-10. Videos and pics of this meet will be posted. Videos will be on our SmugMug gallery “2011 Videos Pac SCY Champs”. Pictures will be in the gallery labeled “Pirates at  2011 Pac SCY Champs…”

Pac Masters SCY Champs Meet March 2011

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Strawberry Canyon (SCAM) Meet March 2011

The fourth meet of the year for the Pirates was the Bay Area Senior Games, held at Stanford University on Saturday, March 26th. Videos are on our SmugMug gallery. Look for the gallery titled “Videos 2011 Bay Area Sr Games”.

Bay Area Senior Games March 2011

The third meet recorded was the Rinconada meet, Saturday, March 12th. Videos will be on our SmugMug site. Look for the Gallery titled “Videos 2011 Rinconada Meet”.

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Rinconada Meet 2011

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The second meet of the year we attended was the USF Valentines Affair, February 11th. Videos are on our SmugMug site. Look for the Gallery titled “Videos 2011 USF Meet”.

USF Meet 2011

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To see videos of our competitors at the Fog City Meet, the first meet we competed at in 2011, visit our SmugMug site. Look for the Gallery titled “Videos 2011 Fog City Meet SF”. We also have them posted on YouTube. Search forMarinPiratesMasters.

Fog City Meet 2011

100 Club November 2011