500 Yards

My junior year in high school I played football, swam, and competed in track. My events in swimming were usually 3 of the following: medley relay where I swam butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 200 individual medley, 100 backstroke, 100 freestyle or the freestyle relay. Oh yeah, I also swam the 500 freestyle.

Red Lion Holiday Park Arbroath. Top 20 Caravans
Red Lion High School pool

Swimming was new when I went to school. The pool had just been built and my freshman year was the 1st year we had a swimming team. That resulted in some controversy because freshman weren't allowed to compete in varsity sports, yet there I was on a varsity team.

By my junior year all that controversy had worked itself out and freshmen continued to compete on varsity. My younger brother Joe was pretty good at events I wasn't. He was our best backstroker, a very good breatstroker and a good freestyler. But since he is 18 months younger, I always had the advantage over him. That is until a race late in the season.

We were competing against a team where our coach thought we could sweep the 500 free so he put Stuart Nelson (our best distance swimmer) Joe and me in for Red Lion. He assumed, as did everyone that Stuart would win (he did), that I would get 2nd and Joe would compete for the last point.

As expected Stuart took an early lead with Joe and I not far behind. We swam in a 25-yard pool. From the end of the pool where we started, Joe was to my fight up against the glass in the above photo. Joe was surprisingly strong that day; I was swimming my normal, predictable race. In fact Joe was doing so well we were neck-and-neck for the whole race. When I could see him to my right I would pull ahead and make the turn in the lead. When he could see me, he would pass me and make the turn in the lead. That went back and forth for the whole race; Joe never fell behind as I expected.

As I pulled ahead on the last lap I could see him, I made my flip turn and swam as hard as possible knowing what had been happening and determined not to let it happen this last lap. Our friends in the stands were appparantly going nuts cheering us on. It may have been the 1st race in history where such excitement was present for a 2nd place finish (Stuart had already won). As you guessed it, I touched the wall and looked up at the scoreboard to discover my lane finished in 3rd place.

I'm not sure I ever beat Joe again. He had his confidence now and his talent was more than I could compete with. My senior year I never beat him, regardless of the event. Had we raced in the 100 butterfly I would have won - but that race never happened.

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