Postal Swims
A postal swim involves swimming an event without travelling to a swim meet. You can swim the event at a time and pool that suits you within a specific time frame but you need to have someone to time and record your split times. The times are posted to the organising club and the results are posted back at a later date.
There are a variety of postal swims conducted throughout the year that may interest many of our members. Details of all postal swims can be found in the Postal Swim folder at the pool during aerobic sessions or on the Australian Masters Swimming website under the events section.
Leisa Cass is our Postal Swim organiser.
Calendar of Postal Swims for 2013
The first postal swim of the year is the British Long Distance Swimming Association’s One Hour Postal Swim in January/February. As the title of the swim suggests, it’s simply a case of swimming for an hour and seeing how many metres you cover!
At the start of the year, there is also the Wests Auburn 5000m Turtle Swim. The 5000m distance is required to be swum by an individual or by a team from January-April. This is also a great kick off for your endurance swims. Imagine how many ways you can split 5000m? You can swim the distance in Freestyle, Breaststroke, Backstroke or 4 x 1250m IM. You can swim freestyle or in a formstroke relay with other club members as 2 x 2500m, 5 x 1000m, 10 x 500m or even the dazzling 4 x 1250m Medley Relay if you wish. Not to mention getting ahead on your million metres card!
In March/April there is the New Zealand Northland Master’s The Wall. There are two swims in “The Wall”: an 800m and a 1500m swim. 800m to be swum as 400m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, 100m Backstroke, 100m Breaststroke and 150m Freestyle. 1500m to be swum as 800m Freestyle, 100m Butterfly, 200m Backstroke, 200m Breaststroke and 200m Freestyle.
In May/June it is time for one of our favourites … the Bunbury Winter Postal Swim … 3 x 400m swims (Freestyle, Backstroke and Breaststroke OR Butterfly) … swims can be done at aerobic swim sessions, training sessions (before or during) or any time that there is someone to timekeep! As 400m swims are part of the aerobic swim program, you can swim one of each stroke in both May and June and the fastest of the three required swims will be selected for the Bunbury entry.
We have our very own Tuggeranong Trifecta … three swims (a 400m, an 800m and a 1500m) … each in a different stroke. The 400m or the 800m may be swum as an Individual Medley. The trifecta must be swum during July/August.
The Aqua Jets Taskmaster involves up to four swims using any stroke during September/October. The distances/times involved are: 800m, 1500m, ½ hour and 1 hour. Entry cost depends on how many swims are completed, and this one also requires a signature before you start the swims.
Finally, to round the year off, in October/November, it is Tamworth’s “Swim like a Legend”. The 2011 Postal swim was based on events in which legendary Australian swimmer still hold World, Commonwealth or Australian records. The records chosen are from our Aussie Swim Legends and you will be amazed at how long some of their records have stood. There is a legend event list for both Short Course and Long Course record attempts. There are three records to swim. You swim any stroke you like, the records are all freestyle. Each legend‐in training needs to swim all three events for their pool size. The swims are based on the record times. Your goal is to swim for the same time that our legends swam, and then STOP, and record how close you got to the finish line? They finished the distance – what distance did you do?
There is a folder for 2012 Postal Swims which is be kept in the Aerobic Swims bag. There will be an information sheet (please don’t remove this) and multiple entry forms for each of the swims.
