The CapeDolphin Masters Swim Club Newsletter

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ph: (021) 685 3388 / 082 904 8037

AUGUST 2005

Hi guys,

We are experiencing such a cold and wet winter that I thought I had better check up on you and make sure that you are still getting to the swimming pool. If you are not managing to swim as much, are you in the gym doing a few sit ups (300 crunchies?) and some weights (15kg?) and taking the dogs for 1 hour walks in CeciliaForest every day? If the answers are NO, NO, NO, do not worry, as today is the first day of the rest of your life, and there is always time for a new beginning. Evidence of this is the article appearing in this newsletter written by Clare, who is in the process of emerging from years of inactivity to experience the joys of a new and wondrous world.

NEXT GALA – AT COETZENBURG

THIS SUNDAY - 20TH AUGUST AT 10.30 AM

IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO SWIM WILL YOU TIME KEEP?

PHONE CHERYL IF YOU CAN ON 082 941 6796

EVERYONE IS WELCOME – ESPECIALLY NEW MEMBERS

PLEASE WEAR YOUR GREENCAPE DOLPHINS CAP WHEN YOU SWIM

(AVAILABLE FROM NADINE)

You should have received entry forms from Britt, and if you have not, please contact one of the Committee members.

The first gala of the winter season had a great turn out of new and old members.

Well done to Gary, Liz, Terry and Britt (old toppies) and new toppies: Gerhard, Izak, Keith, Ryan, Kieron and Garth for taking part in the gala and for winning both relay events! CONGRATULATIONS to you all.

While we may appear to be a small Club compared to our rival local clubs, DOLPHIN Masters members must remember that we are just one division of CAPEDOLPHINS that includes very successful Diving and Junior swimming sections. We are not aware of any other Aquatic club in the country that embraces 3 disciplines as our Club does. We have families with members in both Masters and Junior divisions and although we do not do much mixing, there is certainly a broader family out there that we are part of. Dolphins have senior and junior training squads operating at all times of the day at different venues.

  • NATIONALS

There is lots going on at the moment with the planning for Nationals in full swing. For the new members in our midst, SA Masters Champs are being held in Malmesbury in March next year. WP Masters (that is our region) is hosting the event and our club is responsible for the Opening Ceremony, the Happy Hour and the Awards Dinner on the final evening. So there is much planning to do and we, the Committee, have been out to Malmesbury to sort out venues, meet caterers etc etc. Sharon Johnstone from Barracudas Swim Club has been an invaluable resource for us and is providing us with all the contacts and connections that we need to host this event out of town. We think that Sharon should actually be the MAYOR OF MALMESBURY!

Didi has organised accommodation for us, but we do need to have a better idea of how many beds to book, i.e. do you think you will be staying in Malmesbury for the duration of the tournament?

Although the drive out from Cape Town is only 45 minutes, you will definitely get more involved and have more fun if you stay out there on our olive farm, with the Club. Coming in from Cape Town each day will put pressure on your schedule, you will not be leaving your domestic cares behind, and you will not be able to enjoy the evening functions to such an extent. (The opinion of the editor anyway!) Please can you let Didi know whether you are a “maybe” or a “yes”. Obviously we cannot expect final decisions from everybody now, but an indication of your intent will help enormously.

Didi’s e-mail is .

SA MASTERS SWIMMING CHAMPS

WED 1ST MARCH – SATURDAY 5TH MARCH 2006

For the uninitiated, the program of events runs thus:
Wednesday evening consists of the Opening Ceremony and Registration, plus technical meetings. You collect your goodie Bags (we hope Winelands are preparing humungous goodie bags with lots of freebies for us) and that’s about it.

On Thursday the gala actually begins and swimming goes through to Saturday afternoon.

Friday evening is the Happy Hour – socialising, eating, dancing etc. We have grand plans for this evening including a boereorkes, wine tastings and good food.

Saturday evening is the Award Ceremony and Dinner Dance (which we are going to make very special!).

Sunday is the traditional Open Water Swim, which is a fun event and not really part of the Championships in that you cannot win points for your Club. But for some swimmers this event is what makes their toes tingle.

So think about this. If necessary, one can come out on Thursday morning and go back on Saturday evening. That will give you 2 nights and 3 days of freedom! A little swimming, loads of sun, the odd massage on the lawn, gossip, competition, the odd medal for the lucky ones, and there you have it. Something to start working towards now. Entry forms will be out in a few months so be ready to commit.

BRITT’S BABY MIA HAS FULLY RECOVERED FROM HER OP AND IS GROWING LIKE MAD TO MAKE UP FOR LOST TIME

NEW MEMBERS

We welcome the following new members to our Club, and hope that you join in the fun, swim in the galas, and generally feel at home:

Terry Matley Keith Kelly
Garth Anderson Dion Joubert
Jennifer Stewart Gerhard Beukes
Izak Spies Clive Webb
Terence Matzdorff

BIRTHDAY GREETINGS

Happy birthday wishes to Norelle (1st August ), Jennifer Stewart (2nd August), Ryan Stramrood (10th August), Terry Griffin and Cheryl Young (11th August), Dion Joubert (20th August), and Chairman Britt (22nd August). May all your dreams come true.

  • WINTER FITNESS CHALLENGE AND “TOUR DE FRANCE” EVENING

August is WFC month. This is the annual inter-club challenge, in which all Club members are invited to swim for 1 hour, measure the distance swum and submit this to your Club chairman. The winning club is determined according to a formula, and there is a cash prize for the winning Club. Forms have been sent out, but if you have been out of the loop, then please contact one of the Committee members in order to get a form.

“TOUR DE FRANCE”

AN EVENING OF FRENCH CUISINE, GAELLIC FLAIR,

YELLOW JERSEYS and SURPRISES FRANCAISES

SATURDAY 3RD SEPTEMBER

8 GLEBE ROAD RONDEBOSCH

FROM 7.00PM ONWARDS

R60 PER PERSON (bring your own drinks)

We are planning a Club get-together on Saturday 3rd September when we can do the swim together at the Sports Science Institute, and then enjoy supper at Rob and Didi’s house - R60 per head – and everyone is invited. Even if you don’t swim with the Club that evening, you can do the swim in your own time, and come along for the evening. We would love to have you along - young and old, fast and slow, new and long-standing, come and share the spirit of the TOUR DE FRANCE.

Our resident gourmet chefs Didi and Gillian will be donning their aprons and chef’s hats and whipping up a little “je ne sais quoi!”

  • For our new members, THE CAPE DOLPHINS COMMITTEE is:

POSITION / NAME / TEL / E-MAIL
Chair / Britt Stott / 434 4007
082 337 2885 /
Vice Chair and Nationals Co-ordinator / Gary Freeling / 434 1430
082 216 3633 /
Membership Sect & treasurer / Liz Webb / 674 2715
082 885 0344 /
Gala Rep / Cheryl Young / 559 1072
082 941 6796 /
Fundraising and Socials / Didi Petit & Gillian Darcy / 685 7413
082 808 2853 /

Kit Co-ordinator / Nadine Foster / 689 4620
082 731 0798 /
Newsletter / Mairi Brimble / 685 3388
082 904 8037 /
  • BUMBLING AROUND GYM LIKE MR BEAN, I HAVE VISIONS OF SHRINKING TO BIKINI SIZE". By Clare van der Gaast

Those exercise machines were aliens. Even once I was shown how they worked, I would sit on themback-to-front,tryandwrench immobile arms out of steel sockets and pull coiled bits out so far that they would clang back. Easing them back gently neveroccurred to me.
Even now, after eight weeks on theHealthy Weight Programme at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa,Ibumble around theNewlands circuitlike Mr Bean, peering atthepictureon each machine, that clearly shows which way to sit andhow to operateit. Yet, I am achangedanimal. The woundedbuffalothat pounded around the track is five kilos lighter and able to see a few winking lights at the end ofthe fat tunnel....
But losing lard is not the key issue. Along with the lard, Iamlosing a mindset andflirting with ahealthier lifestyle. Ihaven’t fully embracedit, but we are dancing cheek-to-cheek. Myhigh cholesterol isdownandI keep up with my schnauzer on walks.I've come a long way since I waddled into my first assessment that measuredeverything from my Body Mass Index to the sum of myskinfolds.

Mybeachball tummy that theypolitely calledmy “waist circumference”was117cm (anything above 88cm is a heart risk). The beachball has deflated to 114cm and is now pear-shaped.I always hiditunder a long, flowing dress.More like a marquee really. Icouldn't gym in the dress. So the beachballmoved into a pair of tights. If Irolledover, itrolled over with me, if I bounced alongthe track, it bouncedalong with me. Atleast in the dress, I could stroke it lovingly when people asked, "When isyour babydue". You can't do that with a lump of lard.
But Ikeptgoing, egged on by my man... "for every kiloyou put on," he said, "your heart has to pumpblood through an extrakilometer of capillaries".Fancy that,one heartdoing all that work, stoically and valiantly beating on, a sacred heart,the only heartIhave, keepingme going whileIheap moreweight onto it, like acamel. It was time to ease theload. Problem was that I was not used toexercising three times a week. Iwas not used to exercising atall.I would roll out of bed onto my computer.I never crunched breakfast cereals. I didn't fancy taking myteeth on a hike first thing in the morning. I have since found a cereal that gives you less fang fatigue,and a goodkick-start.
Suddenly my body was warming up, not on a mug ofcoffee buton a bicycle. Next I was stretching,notfor the cookie jar, but for my shins. Westretchedeach muscle group to guard againstinjury andmusclestiffness.Then came the cardiovascular workout.Finallythe cool-down ...tenminutesof light exercise and stretching,to return the heart rate and bloodpressure to itsresting state.
My teeth had their ownworkout...onmuffins in the foyer, until I was told that onemuffin was equal to five slices of bread. I was shownhow to eat more mindfully,tospeedmetabolism and boostenergy.I now eat when I'm hungry, not when I'm so ravenous that a slab of cheese slides down my throat like awatermelon on wheels.
The cherry on top did NOT have to weigh ALL my food. Wesized a 90g serving offish by picturingadeck of playingcards;A medium apple or pearwas a tennisball and 30g of cheese one matchbox. A medium potatowas acomputermouse. A pancake or a waffle was a CD. And, wait for it, amuffin was a doorknob. I walked into a few of those before coming to mysenses. I used to worry that "what you eat today, you wear tomorrow".Nomore. I can now have acomputer mouse for lunch, a tennis ball for tea and apackof cards for supper.
The Healthy Weight Programme, a regular feature at the SSISA, hasn't turned this super sloth into a super athlete.But Ijump out of bed in the morningandcombine healthy eating with regular exercise.Midway through the programme, Icaughtflu.I slipped back into my old eating habits like a comfy pair of slippers.When I finallyshuffled back to gym, I wasshaky and tiredfromall the coughing, veryreluctant to continue. That was the day I met myMuse.

I saw her in the change room, seated inher braandpants, blow-drying herhair.Alarge lady,maybe twice my size, with her back to me. I notedthe familiar pleatsof flesh spilling out from under the bra and marvelled at her lack of self-consciousness.She had a presence and regality. I watched her comb and sweep up her hair. I was mesmerised.
All the big people I have known, including myself, are uncomfortable with their size; they waddle along with hunched shoulders from which their clothes hanglike damp duvets on a sagging washing line.
Not so this woman. She was comfortable in her own skin andoblivious of those around her.She had a good sense of self. I would rather have died than sat in my briefs in front of all those women,blow-drying my hair. I had been feeling very down on myself and my excess lard. I didn'tsee me anymore, just a big blob of fat. But when I sawthis woman, I realised that there was something even bigger than herphysical size,so big that it filled every corner of that room,and far more telling of who she was... her spirit.
One can't always see that in a very largeperson, it gets enveloped in flesh, but her spirit shone forthlike a big golden moon and lit up every dark, sad corner of my being. This woman wasn't wearing her flab, she was wearing her self-esteem. She went and sat in front of a mirror and very slowly and with the utmost care, donned a pearl necklace,as a princess might do, though a princess would have someone do it for her.She was her own princess and her own handmaiden. She was her ownwoman.She was taking good care of herself in spite of herlarge size. And she was moregracefuland self possessedthan all the skinny women in that change room.

Eventually she dressed, as comfortable in her clothes as in her nakedness. I wentand thanked her. I said shehad given me hope that all was not lost. I told her how watching her don her pearls had made me realise how important it is totreat oneself like a princess and take good care of oneself.She just smiled graciously and said,"I find swimming helps a lot". When I asked how many laps, she said 45.I was flab-berghasted."Surelynot," I said. "Oh yes," she replied, "but I started with two."
She was the most beautiful woman I have everseen. Andshe gave me the will to continue. She and my angels. They enteredthe scene one night when I stood alone and undecided in the change room, which Inow call the transition room. Myeight-week gym debut was over. I could continue or quit. Which was itto be? The answer came in the form of a song wafting over the sound system. The words were "we are your angels, if you do it, we'll do it". It must have been the chorus line, because it was sung again and again.
So I listenedto my angels. And I listened tomy Muse.I'm back at gym,swimming mainly,with arms and legs waving in all directions. Such is my fear of sinking. It took days to get afloat. It was like launching the Titanic.I started with half a lap and am now doing twenty laps. I feel far fitter and much lighter. I even wrote a letter to my mini skirt in mycloset, promising it a night out once I can squeeze into it.The poet, Shelley asked: “If Winter comes, can spring be far behind? My question is “if the skirt comes out, can the bikini be far behind?”

THERE IS NO COPYRIGHT ON THESE NEWSLETTERS SO PLEASE FEEL FREE

TO MAKE COPIES AND HAND THEM OUT TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND FANS,

ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE SWIMMERS.

Ciao for now,

Mairi