April 17, 2025
A Mighty Mermaid and Attorney with a Passion for Performance: Nancy Steadman Martin, EP 276
Nancy Steadman Martin is the only woman in the world, over 70, to break 21 minutes in the 1500 freestyle! What does it mean to be truly unstoppable at 70? Steadman Martin embodies this question as she continues to shatter world swimming records while maintaining a thriving career as a senior law partner. Her remarkable journey defies every notion about aging and physical limitations. She's also a mermaid--really!
Nancy's swimming resume reads like a fantasy novel: world records in the 800 and 1500 freestyle (70-74 age group), swimming the English Channel in record time for women over 50, completing the coveted Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, and winning national titles that often beat competitors decades younger. All while working full-time in law.
The secret to her extraordinary success? A 5:05 AM daily plunge into the pool for a 4,500-yard workout before heading to the office by 8:00, coupled with an unwavering commitment to goal-setting. "I couldn't just get in the pool and swim up and down," Nancy explains. "I need something that I'm looking forward to." This forward-looking perspective has carried her through every challenge, including a life-threatening bout with pneumonia that required lung surgery in 2017.
Perhaps most touching is the legacy connection—Nancy now competes to break her late mother's backstroke records as she ages into each new bracket, describing the feeling as if her mother is swimming in the lane beside her. This familial connection extends to her chosen swimming family, the Mighty Mermaids, a legendary team of women in their 60s and 70s who have been breaking relay records together for 20 years.
When asked what word comes to mind when diving into water, Nancy's answer is profoundly simple: "I'm home." For anyone feeling limited by age or circumstance, Nancy's extraordinary journey proves that with the right mindset and community, our greatest achievements may still lie ahead, regardless of age.
Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.
00:18 - Meeting Swimming Legend Nancy Martin
04:48 - Family Swimming Legacy
07:33 - Balancing Law Career and Elite Training
16:06 - Setting Goals and Finding Inspiration
20:17 - Comeback from Lung Surgery
23:58 - The Mighty Mermaids Journey
30:17 - Sprint Round Fun Questions
WEBVTT
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Hello friends, I'm Kelly Pallis, the host of the Champions Mojo podcast.
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While some 70-year-olds might be slowing down, today we're meeting a force of nature who just keeps getting better with age.
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Stick around.
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You are going to want to be inspired by our guest today, nancy Stedman Martin.
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She is a world record-holding master swimmer and a full-time senior partner at the law firm of Martin Melody LLC in Little Silver, new Jersey, where she specializes in workers' compensation and employment law.
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Somehow in between her busy legal career, she's built one of the most impressive master swimming resumes I've ever seen.
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She's built one of the most impressive master swimming resumes I've ever seen.
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Nancy has swum the English Channel in record-setting time for women over 50 and completed the coveted Triple Crown of Open Water that is, the English Channel, the Catalina Channel and a 28.5-mile loop around Manhattan Island.
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She holds multiple national and world records and shows no sign of slowing down.
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Just this past January she set world records in the 70-74 age group in the 800 and 1500 free, and last week she added two more national titles to her mini in the one mile and the 5K open water events at US Masters Nationals in Sarasota, florida, beating many of the swimmers in the younger age groups her time.
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And, on a fun side note, she's not just making solo waves.
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Nancy is part of the Mighty Mermaids, a legendary team of powerhouse women in their 60s and beyond who have shattered records together in some of the world's toughest open water relay swims.
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Nancy.
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Not only does she have one of the greatest resumes in master swimming that I've ever seen, she's one of my own personal heroes.
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I'm so excited to talk to you, nancy.
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Welcome to Champions Mojo.
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Hi, kelly, that was so nice of you to say that, and I have to add to that that the first time I was in your heat in a distance event I don't know how many years ago it was, but as you know, they put you in heat by time, not just by age.
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So when I was in your heat I felt like I had made it in the distance world.
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I was in Kelly's heat in 1500 or 1650.
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I don't even remember what, but it was a distance event and I was so excited to be in that heat.
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Oh well, I think I might remember that.
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I think it might have been the George Mason University, and I was just as excited, Nancy, let's just start off by telling us a little bit about what have you learned about staying competitive as you age?
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Like what do you think some of your secrets are?
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I think the biggest thing for me with entering competition and staying fit is that setting goals allows me to train better.
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I couldn't just get in the pool and swim up and down.
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I need something that I'm looking forward to, whether it be an open water event or a pool event or just accomplishing something in a workout and working toward that, like doing a set of something you know in a certain time or doing a distance event in the pool and practice.
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But setting goals has kept me motivated.
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And the other thing that has kept me motivated in swimming meets lately is my mother, who was, you know, one of my inspirations.
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She still holds all the New Jersey records as I age up in the backstroke events.
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So that gives me a goal.
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But I just look forward to, you know, accomplishing different things and that gives me my motivation to go to practice every morning.
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Yeah, setting goals, that's such a great secret.
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If you don't have goals, you're not really you're not really focused.
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But how cool, you're trying to break your mom's record.
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So tell us a little bit about that.
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Like you know, you come from a swimming family.
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Your dad was a coach.
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Your mom started into masters, you know, many years ago, but late in her life.
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So give us a little background on the family tradition.
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My mother, Dara Stedman, that's.
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Stedman was her married name.
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Yeah, but my mother was a swimmer as a youngster.
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In fact, she held a world record for a short period of time in a 40 meter backstroke.
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It was when they had those 20 meter pools and she set a record, I think when she was 17, a world record in that 50 backstroke.
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She was a total backstroker and she didn't swim wash.
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You know, the whole time she was raising, you know her children myself and I have three siblings.
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She didn't swim at all, like when I was growing up.
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She'd get in once in a while, but not really to do a workout or not to um, you know, swim laps.
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And then when I started going in masters at age 25 to 29 because that was the the youngest age group at time she went to meets with me and I think she started timing the people that were in her age group which at the time was 55 to 59, and figured you know what I can get back and do this.
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And the Nationals in the next year were in Fort Lauderdale, one of our favorite places to go in the winter.
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So she trained and then, from then on, she was hooked.
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She was setting world records in all the backstroke events and, in fact, in 2022, she got inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame for Masters Swimmers.
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She had passed away by that time, but she holds, and has held, almost all the New Jersey records in the backstroke.
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I'm not traditionally a backstroker, but I started doing a lot more backstroke because I wanted to beat her times as I aged up, and then it's been fun trying to break her records.
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I'll go to a meet.
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The toughest ones for me to get are always her 50 backstrokes and I just got her 50 back in the 70 to 74, but I feel like she's almost next to me in the next lane when I take off, because it's really close.
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In the 65 to 69, it took me four years in that age group and I finally did it at nationals by one one hundredth of a second.
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So it that's been fun.
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It makes me feel like my mother's right there with me and is your mom still with us or no?
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now.
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She passed away um in 2013 and when she got in, when they inducted her in 2022 to the international swimming hall of fame, my brother and I went um to the event and I picked up her award and I somewhat felt like Cinderella because it was so fun but it wasn't my ball.
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You know, I felt a little like it's not really my award, but I almost felt like it was.
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It was just such a fun event they had all the Olympians were there, you know Craig Beersley, greg Louganis, dabra Torres was the host.
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It was an incredible event and, oh, my mother would have loved it.
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up here just a minute and tell us how in the world you have time to train at such a high level with being an attorney, a partner, a senior partner in your law firm and working full time.
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Fortunately, I have two excellent law partners, a father and his son, and we both have other.
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We all have other interests.
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They love to play golf, I like to swim and therefore we try to accommodate each other's schedules when I'm away to meet and one of them is in the office.
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But we work together to do our job.
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And you know I get up early.
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My first dive in the pool is usually at 5.05 AM and you know I get up early.
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My I my first dive in the pool is usually at 5 0, 5 am and you can make time, and then that sets me in a great uh attitude.
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For the entire day I feel like I've done my swim.
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You know I still get to the office, you know, by like 8, 15, 8 o'clock, um, I swim for about an hour 45 minutes and it just sets my day on such a better note after I've had a swim practice.
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Oh for sure.
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How many days a week are you doing that?
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People tell me I shouldn't be doing this.
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But I need to be in the water every day.
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I swim seven days a week.
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There's a couple of days where I'll do a lighter workout and in the summer, a couple of days where I'll do a lighter workout and in the summer, as soon as it's well even actually starting in the spring we'll do ocean swims, myself and a couple of friends of mine, and that's kind of a relaxing swim for me.
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I, you know, just do a long, easy swim in the ocean and they're kind of my off days.
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But I generally do swim seven days a week.
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I'll take off sometimes before in the week, before some meet, and I will try to taper a little bit when I'm going to a big meet.
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But I need to be in the water each day.
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I don't feel right if I'm not.
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What, what kind of yardage are you doing on a daily basis?
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I do about 4,500 to 5,000 five days a week and, like I said, a couple of days are a little bit lighter, but I I just like to do about 45 each day.
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And any strength training.
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I do some dry land a couple of days a week.
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I do need to incorporate more weights.
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I know that as as you age, you know you get weaker and I do need to incorporate more weight training and I can do that at the facility where I go.
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It's hard to fit everything in time wise, but I do need to do some weight training and I'm going to try to incorporate that as my goal for the summer.
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Very good.
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Yeah, that'll be scary if you can add any strength training.
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Have you done any hormone replacement therapy?
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No, I never have.
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I kind of hesitate in taking any kind of supplement.
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I felt like I was going through menopause.
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I just kept looking forward and going ahead.
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This is part of life.
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I'll deal with it and I just kept going forward.
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I always think, well, my grandmothers didn't have any of that stuff and they were out there working kicking butt all their lives.
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I think as athletes, we probably have an easier time with it.
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I think exercise probably helps everything that we do, so it does, and I guess I feel like the body is such an amazing machine that I feel like those, the natural changes that you go through, it's important to like, acknowledge them, but not to let them stop what you're doing or not to let them interfere with what you're doing.
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When I was getting close to 70, I was fighting 70 with all my might, like I was working harder in the pool, I was training more often, doing more yardage, and I thought, oh, that's going to keep me young, and it does to a certain extent.
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But yet I sometimes do have to acknowledge I'm 70 and I might need more rest.
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Yeah, do you notice a big difference from 50 to 60 to 70?
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I probably notice the biggest difference with 70.
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And as my intervals and my times, when those intervals get a little slower in workout, where I don't recover quite as fast as I used to.
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For example, I was just in Sarasota and I did the mile on Friday and the 5K on Saturday Felt fantastic both days and then and part of that's probably the traveling when I came home I always have a delayed reaction to an event or to stiffness, but I definitely was very much slower in the pool on Tuesday and Wednesday and now I feel like I'm coming back again, but I take a little bit longer to recover.
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Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
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Do you have anything that you use as a barometer?
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I'll give you an example, just because it's my barometer for aging.
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For me is the 500 free, and I feel like the 500 free is a good distance for kind of being a long sprint.
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I don't even think of it as really a distance.
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It's kind of like you've got to have speed to swim a good 500 and you've got to have endurance.
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I think hitting a 530-ish 500 free is a good time.
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I think I was at, you know, 527 in my 40s and then this year in the 60 to 64 age group, I went 538.
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So I I feel like, okay, I'm still in the 530s.
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This next year I'll hit the, you know, the 65 to 69.
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So I'm I'm like going to be looking at my 500 free, thinking Can I maintain that speed?
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Can I maintain that endurance?
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Do you have something pull-ups or sit-ups, or a set of 10 100s on a certain interval, or something that you track your progress with?
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It's funny that you mentioned the 500, because that's my barometer.
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It meets also is my 500 time, mainly because you know I'm a distance swimmer but you can push a 500.
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It's different than a 1,000 or a 1,650.
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And I use that as my barometer too.
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In fact they always call me like one pace Nancy.
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In practice I do my warmup and we usually do a 600, but I always note my 500 on the way because then I can pretty much tell how the rest of my workout's going.
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I always try to be under seven on the way in my 500.
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And if I'm over, I'm like, oh, I'm not feeling it today or I'm tired today.
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But that's kind of the event I use as my barometer on how I'm feeling on a daily basis in practice and then how I'm doing it in me.
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So, nancy, what other rituals or routines do you use to be so successful in your law career, in your swimming?
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Are there certain things that you do that set you up for success in the pool?
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I guess setting me up for success in the pool has been pulling inspiration from the people that I surround myself with.
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I try to always be around positive people who set goals and who want to work toward them, no matter what level they are you know, faster than me, slower than me in a pool or just in general in life.
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I like to be around positive people that inspire me, and there's so many around me that do inspire me.
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You know friends that inspire me with their kindness and try to make me you know it helps make me a better person or my law partners who are dedicated to helping injured workers.
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That inspires me.
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So I pull inspiration from a lot of different people and I think being around positive people with goals is definitely a big plus in my success.
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And focusing on other things, like when I look around, you know, some people might put up their awards.
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I was noticing this when I was thinking about the podcast.
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The things that are on my walls in my house are pictures of the people I swim with.
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My mighty mermaids take up a few walls because we've been together for now 20 years and we are constantly, you know, involved with each other.
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We have our Zoom meetings we do a lot of talking and texting and it's just they inspire me.
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And each one of my Mighty Mermaid friends inspires me in very different ways because we're very different personality wise.
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So that's how I pull strength in my law practice and in my swimming and just in life in general.
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Oh, that's a beautiful technique.
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Certainly, the people that we surround ourselves with have such an influence on our overall outcomes in life.
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They say look at your five closest friends and that's really who you're going to be like.
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So I love that.
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So I would love to hear what you would consider one of your very best comeback stories.
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I have to say that it was when I had pneumonia and needed lung surgery and came back from that In 2017, I did a 10K swim in Bermuda and did very well.
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I came home and about five, six days later I started feeling like I had the flu or was tired and I just kept kind of pushing it through and then I really felt horrible.
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So I finally did go to a walk-in clinic and they said you have pneumonia, you got to go to the hospital and in the hospital my pneumonia had turned into an odd infection and I ended up needing lung surgery.
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I was in the hospital for 10 days and they had to go aside from this between my ribs and, I guess, clean out my lungs.
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I don't know really exactly what it was, but I then it took me a month or two to recover.
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I don't think that was the longest period I've gone in my entire life with not swimming.
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I missed about six weeks where I couldn't go to the pool after the 10 days in the hospital and then coming back from that was a challenge and I still do feel every once in a while in my left side, in my left lung, that I have to warm up and take deep breaths and it feels like it's tighter than the other one.
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But coming back from that was a challenge and it was my goal to come back stronger than when I had pneumonia and I feel like I accomplished that goal Wow.
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That is quite a comeback story.
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Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine thinking you're going to get some medicine and end up in the hospital and in surgery.
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Wow, how did you handle that mentally?
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Did you kind of freak out or what was what were?
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I'm more of a person that I always look forward and I don't dwell on like, oh you know, I did ask myself how in the world did I get pneumonia?
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I had never.
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I'd never been sick, never been in the hospital.
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I, you know, had a clean bill of health all my life.
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So this was really a shock to me.
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But one of the lessons that my father, who was also my swim coach, always would say to me was you're only as good as your next race.
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So don't gloat on what you did and don't cry about what you did.
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Just look forward and you're only as good as your next one.
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And it's been a really good life lesson for me.
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It was good in overcoming pneumonia.
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I just looked forward and said I'm getting over this and I'm going to be better than I was and it's not going to limit me.
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My husband had passed away in 2009, and that was a difficult time, but I still.
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I always looked forward and tried to make the best of a situation.
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I took over his business in addition to my law practice, which was supplying lifeguards to different beaches and condos, so that helped me get through that period of time.
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I always look ahead at goals or what my, but I can do without limitation.
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Yeah, that's beautiful and that sounds like a really great mindset.
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What is your mindset when you are in the middle of a difficult swim?
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The first part of any long distance swim, like Manhattan or Catalina.
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That's my hardest time.
00:20:16.998 --> 00:20:24.883
I almost feel like I wonder if my boat will notice if I go down to the bottom and just stay there Like I don't feel like swimming.
00:20:24.883 --> 00:20:25.987
I it's.
00:20:25.987 --> 00:20:36.178
It's a horrible feeling and I've gotten it in almost every long distance swim I have done Um, probably except the English channel, but I I did Tampa Bay and I felt that way.
00:20:36.198 --> 00:20:52.192
Manhattan Island, I think all four times I felt that way and I get through that by trying to focus on the other people that are in my life or that are counting on me to, you know, to keep going and that gets me through it.
00:20:52.433 --> 00:21:13.823
And I do an odd thing when I, when I do a really long one, I pretend I'm being interviewed about my life from somebody that goes the whole swim, like I started off when I was a kid, and I pretend I'm being interviewed and that's what got me through a lot of long distance swims when I feel like I just want to quit and go to the bottom of the sea.
00:21:13.823 --> 00:21:31.842
But when I'm in a 1650, I probably do something that I know is not probably recommended by others, but right from the beginning I focus on somebody else, Like I'd love to have somebody next to me that's a little faster or that's near me.
00:21:31.842 --> 00:21:42.855
And even if they're a lot faster, I'll concentrate on trying to stay with them or not have them lap me so much if that's the heat I'm in, like when I'm with you.
00:21:42.855 --> 00:21:54.423
I try to focus on another person because it seems to take away the pain that I'm feeling or the fact that I'm thinking oh no, I've got 20 laps to go.
00:21:54.423 --> 00:22:01.140
That helps me get through most of my thousands, or 1650s.
00:22:01.299 --> 00:22:02.442
Yeah, I can see that.
00:22:02.442 --> 00:22:11.616
I think part of that is just sounds like distraction, which is great Sometimes when I can do that, get in there, sing a song or do something else, but well, that's good.
00:22:11.616 --> 00:22:19.019
So let's see, is there anything in master swimming that you really haven't accomplished that you want to?
00:22:20.682 --> 00:22:30.781
Oh yes, one of my travel buddies to swim meets was a woman named Julia Dulce, and I loved her goal so much I want it to be mine.
00:22:30.781 --> 00:22:37.943
And her goal was to be the last one standing is the true winner in a master's competition.
00:22:37.943 --> 00:22:44.278
So when you're the oldest one and you're standing on the side of the pool ready to race in 800, you're the winner.
00:22:45.541 --> 00:22:53.991
In other words, you've survived everybody else and you're still active enough to still be doing the sport and the events that you love.
00:22:53.991 --> 00:22:56.355
So that's a goal for me.
00:22:56.355 --> 00:23:00.964
My other goal is to keep holding on as best I can.
00:23:00.964 --> 00:23:08.023
I know I'm not going to do some of my fastest times, but holding on as best I can as I age up.
00:23:09.111 --> 00:23:22.500
Yeah, it's got to be pretty satisfying knowing that you just turned 70 into the 70 age group and you're the fastest 70-year-old woman ever to swim the 1,500-meter free in the world.
00:23:23.529 --> 00:23:29.976
I'm the fastest one in short course meters, but my Mighty Mermaid teammate, Christy Serrallo, holds the long course.
00:23:30.289 --> 00:23:32.113
Oh right, the long course, the short course.
00:23:32.113 --> 00:23:33.719
You're in the short course, but I'm the short course one.
00:23:34.170 --> 00:23:45.440
But Christy and I have a real fun dynamic where we want to see the other one succeed and because we want to try to do better than that one in the next one.
00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:48.138
So we've gone back and forth a little bit on that.
00:23:48.138 --> 00:23:50.959
But she does hold the long course and I hold the short course.
00:23:50.959 --> 00:23:56.315
But I know she's gunning for my short course and I'm gunning for her long course, so we have a lot of fun with that.
00:23:56.958 --> 00:23:58.575
Yeah, and I love that.
00:23:58.575 --> 00:24:01.015
Let's talk a little bit about the Mighty Mermaids.
00:24:01.015 --> 00:24:05.650
These are some of the most decorated women in master swimming.
00:24:05.650 --> 00:24:09.318
Were some qualifications to get into the mermaid group.
00:24:09.318 --> 00:24:12.025
Christy started it a long time ago.
00:24:12.025 --> 00:24:17.001
Tell us a little bit about it and how that has affected you being such a great swimmer.
00:24:18.029 --> 00:24:27.700
Well, the Mighty Mermaids started, as you said, by Christy Serrallo, who wanted to do some relays and some fun events and she wanted to be competitive.
00:24:27.700 --> 00:24:39.665
So she went through and looked to see who were the fastest distance swimmers in her age group and around that age so that we could come together and do a relay.
00:24:39.665 --> 00:24:42.278
And I didn't really know Christy well at all.
00:24:42.278 --> 00:24:48.330
I had met her and swam against her in a national competition in Fort Lauderdale we had.
00:24:48.330 --> 00:24:57.142
When we compared notes later on we realized we had gone to some other open water races, one in Hawaii earlier on.
00:24:57.142 --> 00:25:00.259
But she got the group together.
00:25:00.259 --> 00:25:05.056
She called me and of course you know somebody wanting to do an open water relay.
00:25:05.056 --> 00:25:06.560
I was on board immediately.
00:25:07.170 --> 00:25:16.613
And then Tracy Grilly has become like we call her the queen of our mighty mermaids because she just holds us all together.
00:25:16.613 --> 00:25:25.421
And then we have Karen Eisleinler, who's one of the top distance swimmers and English Channel swimmer and just an incredible swimmer.
00:25:25.421 --> 00:25:34.080
And then Ronnie Hibben, who's our speed demon and who can do distance also but open water, and she's a real spreader in the pool.
00:25:34.080 --> 00:25:36.538
So we've had a blast.
00:25:36.538 --> 00:25:37.935
We've been together 20 years.
00:25:37.935 --> 00:25:54.623
We started when all of us were 50 to 54 so that we could do the Lake Tahoe really as our first race, and then we've been together ever since and we've been very fortunate that Tracy's husband, david Grilly, has become our merman.
00:25:54.623 --> 00:25:58.464
He goes on all our trips with us and keeps us all together.
00:25:58.464 --> 00:26:06.628
When we have a disagreement about something, he's our referee and our calming influence on all of us, and he's fantastic.
00:26:06.628 --> 00:26:09.454
That's where I stayed when I was in Sarasota and it was.
00:26:09.454 --> 00:26:10.277
It was great fun.
00:26:11.460 --> 00:26:12.823
Oh, yes, that's wonderful.
00:26:12.823 --> 00:26:14.432
When you just went to the Nationals down there.
00:26:14.432 --> 00:26:25.404
Yeah, I know you guys also, you have matching bathing suits and you meet at places and, you know, do open water swims together, obviously, but it's really.
00:26:25.404 --> 00:26:30.819
You guys are a super fun group and I got to spend some time with you guys when nationals were last summer.
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