Honorary "Old and Slow" 50 Fly Race

According to Tom Evans, often when he would come to Edmonton, he and Reagan would meet at the Kinsmen and have the “Old and Slow” 50 Fly race. In honor of Reagan, we decided to swim a race on Saturday before his memorial. Tom Evans, Scott Lebuke, me, and Dave Goodkey showed up ready to swim, with my wife Jenn, Dean Schultz and his wife Jennifer, Scott Lebuke’s wife Mary Jean and Tom’s dad Dr. Evans as spectators and photographers. We swam the race in true Reagan style, with no warm-up at all. We did it with the middle lane empty for Reagan.

Tom won, but we all managed to get through it with legal fly, including two-hand touches, despite Lebuke’s last-minute attempt to change us to freestyle. During our post-race photographic analysis, Tom said I was in the lead at the 3 metre mark. He suggested I just needed a couple of practices to work on that last 47 metres.

All in all, it felt like a good way to remember Reagan. I’m still a bit sore, but still smiling.

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