Featured MAC Swimmer of the Month:
Jacquline Thorpe (“JFly”)
 My journey in swimming began when I decided to try a tri.
As I began to assess my abilities, I knew how to ride a bike and I had a 26” steel mountain bike. Though I am not a runner, I knew I could manage putting one foot in front of the other either running or walking, so my big fear was a distance open water swim. There would be nothing to hang on to, like walls or lane lines, and especially no bottom of the pool to see. I had only done recreational swimming at the beach and at family and friends pools, which told me I needed to learn to swim.
It was the spring of 2012, I had convinced my dear friend Stacey to join me in this endeavor to learn to swim. We saw an add in the Huron Valley Continuing Ed Booklet for coached adult swim and signed up. We arrived at the Milford Pool early, and little by little swimmers began to arrive. We were introduced to Coach Suzanne who put us into a lane with a swimmer named Martha. Martha became our mentor helping us to ”break the code,” of all the workout abbreviations, while we admired her flip turns. Our admiration was usually interrupted by the strong voice of Suzanne giving us instructions on all things swimming. Those first few weeks were tough. I remember a few dirty looks and strong stares from Stacey as she wondered how I convinced her to participate in this “torture” as she jokingly referred to it. We would often stop on the opposite wall from Suzanne and discuss how we could get out of or cheat at certain drills, such as pulling on the lane lines during kicking drills.
 We began to realize that we had gotten ourselves into more than “adult swim.” This was Milford Athletic Club (MAC) and many of these swimmers compete in State and National competitions. Needles to say, we were impressed, intimidated and out of our comfort zone. Then, at one of those early practices, Suzanne had us put on fins to practice dolphin kicking, progressing to fly stroke. This felt easy and natural to me and after a few sets, I came to the wall with Suzanne standing there; she asked, “What is your name?” I said, “Jacqueline” and she thought for a moment, then said, “You are Jfly.” At first, I didn’t know what to think of this. Was my name too long and difficult to remember? Eventually I came to realize that this was just another part of Suzanne, among many things, she’s strong and animated. After all her nickname is Gunnie. I gradually embraced my new nickname.
Stacey and I got comfortable with our lane assignment and I can remember one discussion at the “opposite wall” where we talked about how we were afraid to show improvement for fear that Suzanne would move us up a lane, even more out of our comfort zone, but I overcame this too, finally finding my new “comfort zone.”
As spring gave way to summer, I became stronger and stronger and those tough swim workouts improved my bike and run endurance as well. By late summer, it was time for my first sprint tri, with my goal being to not finish last. I entered the Island Lake Tri feeling prepared thanks to Suzanne and the advice from my fellow MAC swimmers. The tri went well, except for an episode of panic in the beginning of the swim. I also rocked the bike ride with my 26” steel bike and managed to not finish last.
Swimming became more fun because I was learning so much and making so many friends that I decided to continue swimming with MAC. Unfortunately, with the start of the new school year, Stacey became busy with family and stopped swimming leaving me to continue without her.
Nine years later, I have become so much more comfortable. I’ve progressed to learning flip turns, competing in state meets, USTA spring nationals, Michigan Senior Olympics, numerous sprint triathlons, and two half Ironmans. Along the way, I upgraded my 26” steel mountain bike to a carbon triathlon bike and I have had the great pleasure of being coached by several MAC coaches, each with different styles bringing something new to the game. Thanks to these coaches, our learning and perfecting of our swimming strokes never ends.
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. |
