2009 Go The Distance (GTD) Results

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Final 2009 Results

The U.S. Masters Swimming Fitness Event “Go the Distance” (GTD) 2009 is now in the books- what a year it’s been!

It’s amazing how many miles folks swam this year! Don Tatzin (55-59, 1543.21 miles) and Ray Cottom (60-64, 1505.22 miles) both swam over 1500 miles this year! Darcy LaFountain (50-54) leads the ladies with 1314.94 miles while cursing past the GTD milestone of “1250 miles”.

Those that swam over 1000 miles in 2009 include Harriet Wall (65-69, 12114.89 miles), Michael Carew (60-64, 1057.22 miles), Lynn Kubasek (50-54, 1011.99 miles), Brian McLaughlin (50-54, 1011.91 miles) and Carrie Kostopulos-Doebler (35-39, 1008.04 miles).

The total distance swum by all participants is an amazing 245,424.25 miles! Our group average was a whopping 205.20 miles – yeah!

Our most mature swimmers are Brud Cleaveland and Gertrud Zint who are both 92 years young! Our youngest participants are Kelsey Vaughan who is 19 and Thomas Alne and Landon Howard who are both 20 years old !

The age group with the most participants was the 45-49 (229) year olds and is also the age group that swam the most miles this year.

The Colonies zone had the most participants (277) and swam more miles than any of the other zones!

The final breakdown of how many participants achieved each of the GTD distance Milestones is:

Milestone Total Achieved
in 12/09
50 Miles 938 15
100 Miles 779 32
150 Miles 621 24
200 Miles 502 42
250 Miles 388 49
300 Miles 300 41
365.25 Miles 206 34
400 Miles 167 42
500 Miles 91 20
750 Miles 23 9
1000 Miles 8 4
1250 Miles 3 1
1500 Miles 2 2

A hearty congratulations to all of you who achieved one or more GTD Distance Milestones!

A very special thank you to our GTD pal Greta van Meeteren who has provided us with wonderful stories about our participants in the “Meet the GTD Swimmer” feature. This month we meet Michael Schaeffer (50-54) – and what a great story he has to tell!

Included in the final “Meet the GTD Swimmer” feature are our GTD 2009 Final Highlights where we recognize all of the participants who “negative split” their distance in 2009 (the traditional GTD challenge!), those that swam more in 2009 than they did in 2008 and 2007 and also a special recognition to those participants that got “oh so close” to their last milestone (< 2.5 miles!).

To all GTD 2007, 2008 and 2009 participants – a very heartfelt thank you for “going the distance” – what fun we have had! It’s been an absolute pleasure “meeting” all of you, watching your progress over the years and celebrating your achievements (the really fun part!). I have gotten quite attached to you - my “GTD pals”. So please take care, have fun and stay in touch!

Your GTD pal,
Mary Sweat

Monthly Reports:

Participants:

Participation statistics: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

Mileage milestone achievements: