Featured MAC Swimmer of the Month:
Dirk Overdick-Roth
My name is Dirk Overdick-Roth and I am 55 years old. I was born and raised in Frankfurt, Germany, and lived there until I was 31. The reason I moved to Michigan was meeting my wife Melissa whom I met on a business trip/assignment which I met during my first Business trip to Detroit, me working at General Motors and she at the time for EDS. That was in 1996 and today we are married 21 years, have 3 kids (Max 19 @WMU, Emily 18 @MSU, Jack 13) , 2 birds (Charly & Bruno), 2 Goldfish (no names) and 1 dog (Wesley our new Puppy).
My interest in swimming came from a history of different physical activities in my past. I used to play Handball during my teenage years and 20s and ran. The running began with a bet from my best friends Dad during a Christmas Dinner. At this time he looked at his 4 sons and me and asked if we would be ready to run a Marathon in Munich by the end of March. This gave us basically 3 month time, and if we completed it we would get a bottle of Champagne. That motivated us to train, run and actually finish. This was one of the best feelings I ever had in my life. This sparked in me the long distance running, but soon after I had my first issues with my knees in the age of 20. Too much running, and playing Handball was hard on my knees and had to end my running for the time. In the next years, I remained active with weight training, cycling, and trying to be as fit as I could without the running and handball. I always belonged to a gym and made sure to stay fit. These were also the years we were raising our kids and busy with life but tried to make sure to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Swimming did not seriously come into play until I was 45. My nephew in Germany was really into training for Triathlon and was becoming a top leader in his age group in Germany. His dream is to go to Kona and win the race, mine is a little less. I always asked my brother about his son and how he is doing Triathlon. On a trip to visit my family to Germany I was planning to watch my nephew in a local Triathlon. Upon my arrival, I learned that my Brother signed me up as well. I literally got off the airplane that morning at 7 am, 1 hour drive and here we go. I was in a Speedo getting ready to jump into a lake. I was overly optimistic started fast the 500m swim, and after half the distance my freestyle was gone and I had to cruise to the end in Breaststroke.
All this gave me a boost to learn swimming, and maybe do another Triathlon. My knees are still an issue so I realize it will be only Swimming and any other sport which is gentle on my knees. For the next 5 years I swam at Lifetime Fitness in the morning at 4 or 5 am coached by YouTube and by what people say. All this made me eventually sign up for Swim To The Moon for a 5 and 10k eventually. However swimming was a lonely thing, and my wife recommended that I sign up with the MAC team.
And here I am, listening to Coach Melissa, Jim, Diane, and sharing a Lane, hitting the lane markers and torturing me swimming all Strokes. Why Why Why. Actually I enjoy it. I always dreamed about me being able to swim Butterfly, now I try and I still remember my first 200 Butterfly, I believe Jim had this on his Agenda, I felt like a Submarine. I took on so much water.
What I like most at MAC are the people, the Coaches, the good mood, being able to swim with people which have the same passion, and of course getting motivated by people left and right which are doing things I have a hard time with. Flip turns are my killer, or kicking, those things make my swim practice so hard, and then I see people next to me doing it so easily, pushing off the wall doing 15 dolphin kicks, or kicking casual with kick board while I can barely breathe. However this all makes me come back, to be a better swimmer.
MAC Swimmers are the greatest advertisements of all! We love how you share your stories on social media, with friends, etc. We would like to share your stories as well. Each month we will highlight a MAC Swimmer so we can learn more about the team. |