BATH — After a typical practice session, swimming the 500-yard freestyle in a meet is easy. Well, not exactly easy, but those who do it know what they’re in for.
“It’s just all in your head. You believe in yourself and go after it,” Belfast Area High School sophomore Kaylen Ottman said. “Sprinting, there’s not enough time to think about it. In the 500, there’s 20 laps. You can really prepare yourself and know what’s coming.”
On Friday night at the Bath Area Family YMCA, Ottman won the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B title in the 500-yard freestyle. Ottman’s winning time was 5 minutes, 42.08 seconds, approximately three seconds better than her previous best in the race.
Julian Abaldo, a junior at Camden Hills High School, won the boys 500 with a time of 5:01.09, a four-second improvement from his seed time. During the race, Abaldo felt like his pace was off by five seconds.
“I thought I was way off, but I guess I was just one second off of where I wanted to go,” Abaldo said.
The 500 freestyle isn’t just the longest race in Maine high school swimming, it’s the longest race by a lot. It’s more than double the length of the numerous 200-yard competitions, and 10 times longer than the shortest sprint, the 50 freestyle.
To put it in musical terms, the 50 freestyle is “Blitzkrieg Bop.” The 500 is “American Pie.”
The 500 is 20 laps. Competitors swim the length of five football fields. It’s a grind. The race is so long, swimmers’ teammates bob a card carrying the lap number in the water so racers don’t lose track.
“When I first started doing the 500, I really had to pay attention to the cards. Now I can pace better. I know where I’m at,” Ottman said.
Ottman has competed in the race for four years, since she was 12. Abaldo started swimming the 500 two years ago. The memory of that time wasn’t enough to keep him from doing it again. And again.
“I did a pretty decent job. I went out way too fast, but I was able to hold it. It’s gone pretty well so far,” Abaldo said.
“My coaches just always put me in it. They’d say ‘Wow, you’re a distance swimmer.’ So I’ve just stuck with it,” Ottman said.
Longtime Waterville coach Bob Johnston said when he’s looking for a swimmer to place in the 500, he’s looking for a swimmer with an efficient stroke and a mental toughness.
“A long stroke, the fewest strokes up and down the pool,” Johnston said. “They’ve got to be tough enough to swim those longer races and not give up. It’s a long, grueling race.”
If the race is grueling, what does that make a 500 swimmer’s practice? Ottman will swim 3,000 yards in a day of practice. Abaldo said his distance workout can reach 5,000 yards. Pace is as important to those long workouts as the distance, Johnston said.
“Go out at one speed, and try to come back the second half of it faster,” Johnston said. “That gets them into the mindset they need for those longer races.”
Both Ottman and Abaldo like to start the race fast. With around 200 yards to go, Abaldo will pick up his pace. He’ll try to sprint the final 100 yards. When she’s just over the halfway point of a race, around lap 13, Ottman will kick up her pace a notch.
“I know that I want to give up, but I know that I have to keep going if I want to get better,” Ottman said. “So I just give it all I have.”
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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