Now we all know how the right hand lanes have tons of people who used to compete in pool races, continue to compete but now in the Masters brackets, and love to chat about time drops measured in tenths or hundredths of a second! Sheeesh! Who are these guys!

Well, in part, you might say that these are the "Muscle Cars" of Terrapin Masters. You know, those great gas guzzling power demons from Detroit that spat out quarter-mile races as fast as they could gobble those 440 yards down. These are the built for speed, throw on the 454 horsepower motor, and let ‘er rip bad boys! Historically for pool race swimmers, it used to be a case tons and tons of yardage for the aerobic base, do some less frequent sprint sets for anaerobic conditioning, and then work in the weight rooms to bulk up and try and get faster for these "sprinty" short short pool races. Well, of course, times have progressed over the past decade or so and the quickest of the quickest practice their technique too.

Technique, technique, technique. It’s all about practicing technique and flowing through the water as relaxed and gracefully as possible. It’s moving with the least amount of resistance. It’s timing and getting a feel for knowing when to move and what to move to effectively propel oneself forward with the least resistance and muscle power. Learning one little technique to improve one’s overall movement through the water can takes months and months of practice. For some, this is how they get faster and this is why they swim.

But, this isn’t another discourse on the folks who go to swim meets in pools, and it isn’t a dispatch on methods by which one gets faster. It’s topic dedicated to the rarest of a rare breed: The Distance Denizens!

We all know swimmers are a little wacky. How they got this way may be a little bit of the ol’ chicken and the egg dilemma. Here we are - all of us - basically, giving ourselves over to sensory depravation, starring down at the passing pool tiles, and doing this lap after lap after lap, over and over again! Did we begin being such social or physical misfits before we decided to take up "the exercise that works out all your muscles with out hurting your joints" or did swimming make swimmers - uh - swimmers.

Imagine, we’re just like a bunch of caged pumas, pacing their cages, back and forth, back and forth! What are we doing! (Me, I love it, I work on stroke technique and rhythms, give myself over to pain, and strive to endue the pain and fatigue for as long as possible – yeah, I know, like that’s a normal thing for a person to do.)

So, imagine (yup, I used the word imagine to start the last paragraph, too) an even nuttier subset of swimmers. They may not get the respect and flaunt about like the competitive pool swimmers, but they are there with us in the pool and they span almost each and every one of our practice lanes. Their numbers are small. These are the Denizens of Distance! (Insert the theme music to The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau here.)

Distance swimmers are not the kind of swim wimpsters who fade out after 440 yards in a pool duel and want to quit – or just refuse to buck up to the challenge and swim a mile long race (Insert your favorite wimpy person name here). These are people who take it a step further. They go the distance. They get out of the security of pools and move out to the cold open waters to swim solo with a canoe guide or in small packs like wolves.

When you’re swimming open water, where the bottom? Tell me that, you big comp pool stud? What’s lurking underneath when you can’t even site your own hand as it pulls you along in the murky depths, buddy ol’ pal? What are these unseen things that touch the body - even in intimate locals – as you glide by? Are they jelly fish? (Yew!) They might be, and be aware, they might be stinging nettles! (Yikes!) And, why are these big waves tossing me around making me regret that I already ate lunch? (Argh!)

What’s the sport here? Where the recognition? Where’s the lane lines and the comforts of 80-something degree water! (You’re usually swimming in 60 degree water in the Maryland region.) Could it be that these distance types are interested in a different challenge, a different pleasure? An internal challenge where the only recognition is their own? The pleasure of swimming unconstrained out of doors with nature. As you know, outdoor swimmers swim miles and not yards. These swimmers are swimming distances that most people with which we live, work and socialize with won’t even put on a pair of jogging shoes to run, let alone swim. Distance swimmers measure times in hours - not tenths or hundredths of a second like their pool comp brethren! These guys are definitely in for the long haul!

Terrapins have these guys (guys is plural for guys and gals - oops! Another PC blunder!) swimming with us. Yes we do! They’re up on our rosters and swimming in just about every one of our lanes. Distance swimmers registered with other local teams also swim with us in practice. Here’s a quick listing of many of these lone wolves that participate in the adventures of outdoor, open water, long distance swimming! Look around – They may be in your lane!

Meghan Gibbons. When you look over to the middle practice lanes and see the friendly swimmette wearing two arm straps – each above the arms’ biceps and below the deltoids – you’re watching Meghan Gibbons. She swims the 4.4 mile Great Chesapeake Bay swim. She’s done it in the past and she’s signed up to do it again this year. A brave sole who does her shoulder exercises and is admired by many!

So that you know, the 4.4 mile Bay swim has been conducted since the 1980's and Terrapin Masters have had roughly a hundred of its members signing up for and swimming this local but nationally preeminent swim event. To name a few, some of the more recent members that you may see on the pool deck include the following: Ken Meyers, Carrie Tupper, Charles "Little Ed" Stoner, Amber Reiss-Holt, Sean West, Jane West, Craig Dewing, James Nealis, Bob Lazzaro, Susanna Van Sant, Michael "Slot Machine" Lee, Andrew Ellis, Cheryl Wagner, Allison Thomson, Michelle Chambers, Michelle Humanick, Ann-Marie Lombardi, Ditte McInnes, Debbie Morrin-Nordlund, Eric Nordlund, Supy Phongikaroon, John Sabelhaus, Marcia Smith, and John Walker.

This year, beside Gibbons, the team is being represented in the Great Chesapeake Bay swim by the ever vivacious Meredith "Happy/Happy Trails" Stakem, Cheryl Wagner, and perennial favorite Allison Thomson.

Who else has swum this Bay swim and swims with us? Well, there's David McLain (you know him as "Speedbump"), who swims for Patriot Masters Swim Team but strays over to the Terp pool for some good Saturday fitness swim sessions and lessons; Jenn "Bandit" Bistrack and Julie Peterson from the Arundel Breakfast Club ("ABC") – a Maryland Master’s team; and Dan Dooher (the bearded guy in the middle lanes) from the District of Columbia.

Now, these folks just don’t limit themselves to 4.4 mile swims. A quick run through some distances swims and you’ll see that Allison Thomson, Bob Lazzaro, Dan Dooher (D.C.), Julie Peterson (ABC) and others have swum Cheryl Wagner’s 7.5 mile Potomac River swim. Bob Lazzaro, Michael Lee, and Julie Peterson (ABC) have done the 10 mile Popular Island swim on the Eastern Shore. ABC Julie Peterson, who swims with us many a Saturday, has also crossed the English Channel! Less than a thousand people have crossed the English Channel and kind hearted Julie’s one of them!

Amazing, huh? Now, tell me. Did you know you that you were swimming next to or even had such a stud in your lane? There are others swimming with us, too. Heck, you might be one yourself. You might find yourself signing up for one of these multi-mile swims yourself for your own challenge. You might check out the Reston two-milers later this summer as a starting point. And know that while you’re swimming this outdoor swim, you’re swimming something that some of those showy muscle cars in the right hand lanes just don’t have the drive in them do! Varoom!