Dear Blog,
My grandfather, Jack Hogan, he competed with US Masters Swimming, as an old man. He made it to nationals in the 70-74 age bracket. You can see his times here. I was there when he got those times. Nationals were in Cleveland so he stayed with us and I went to his events. That was the first swim competition I ever went to.
I recently competed myself, the Wildcat Masters Spring Meet, 4/25/2026. I swam the 50yd Freestyle and the 50yd Butterfly. I was 40 years old at the time (still am).
This was the completion of a plan that formed close to ten years ago. I remember when I was 31 thinking about competing in the water, and training specifically for it. I even got 4 swim lessons with a competitive swimmer to talk tightening up my form and ensuring my strokes and turns wouldn't get me disqualified. I watched videos on what was or was not a legal turn in competitive swimming. I think even before that, I was getting advice from my wife's cousin who competed; wanting to know what might be wrong with my butterfly and my flutter kick. Back then I was considering individual medley and worked on all strokes.
Then I graduated with my PhD and didn't have steady access to a pool, or when I was at the pool I was watching my daughter and it all kind of went to the side. Then my marriage and career fell apart, then my drinking really took just about everything and put it on the side. Excuses, excuses. I did, however, volunteer as stroke and turn judge when my de facto step daughter joined the swim team and they needed parents to volunteer at the local meets. I was stroke and turn judge twice, and in fact issued two disqualifications when we were instructed that the meet was a qualifier and we needed to be strict, even with the under 15 year olds. These little local suburb vs local suburb events for under 18s got me hype to compete, even as I wasn't doing any swimming and my fitness was steadily declining.
In 2023, at age 37, I got sober, and by the fall, was swimming now and then, and got serious once again about competing. My fly seemed to still be, if not truly competitive, better than most people, and fast enough to justify taking up space at a competition. My backstroke was terrible, and my breast stroke, so I gave up on those, and hence any ideas of individual medley.
I trained for the next two and a half years, mostly in winter. I got shoulder injury after shoulder injury. I'd be out of the water for two months and then rehab to get back up to where I had been multiple times. Recently, I still wasn't entirely where I wanted to be, but I felt about as strong as I was ever likely to be and a good competition popped up. A little regional meet - not a qualifier that would bring in a lot of serious athletes trying to get to regionals or nationals. Not super far away, Danville Kentucky.
All this time, my goal wasn't to win, or place, or anything like that. It wasn't even to not come in last place. I said that last place was ok, as long as it wasn't by much. For me, the win was if it made sense for me to be there. I didn't want to hold up the next heat.
So, how'd I do?
50 free - seed: 40.00, competition time 34:94 (Personal best time since age 31, second best time)
50 fly - seed: 48.00 competition time 37.96 (PR by 4 seconds)
The 50 free saw 5 heats, arranged from slowest seed time to fastest. I was in the second heat, and was 4th out of 6 in that heat. The 50 fly saw two heats, I was in the first heat, and came in second in that heat. Heats were mixed age and sex, so I was swimming with young women and old men alike. To compare a bit more to my age bracket: against males 35-45, I was 5th out of 7 for the free and 4th out of 6 for the fly. I beat one 38M and one 45M in both events, and lost against several guys who were better sprinters than I am. That is, I justified taking up space at the meet, I didn't hold up the next heat, I didn't come in last, and it made sense for me to be there.
And I probably won't ever do it again. Swim meets suck. There's all this waiting around. You might be there for 4 hours to swim for 2 minutes, plus warm ups. I could be out on my bike. I could swim 500 or a 1000 meters in 40 minutes and go home. I didn't do this because I wanted this as a hobby. I wanted to do it to prove something to myself. To show that I could. To show that it made sense for me to be there. To honor my grandfather's legacy. I wanted to because I'm pretty good at butterfly and I like to compete sometimes.
It's strange to be on this side of a years long ambition. It's strange to think that if I ever compete again, it'll be in some new phase of life, probably quite old, and not competing in the same way. More like getting medals because I can swill swim 50 yards, I'm 80 years old and no one else shows up in my age bracket. Or never. It's kind of hard to let go. As my last post clearly showed, I have too many hobbies. I should let this one go, and just swim for fitness and fun and not to compete. I won't get injured as much. I have decided to let it go; but it's still hard.
I'm still going to rock the speedo though.
Peace and Love,
-Ian Hogan,
One time USMS Competitive Swimmer of record.
P.S. I'll post the USMS database record once they go up. Meanwhile, here's the relevant bits of the record sheet they sent out to all the swimmers.
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