If you're interested in checking up on whether I'm still keeping fit, have a look at the graphs above and below! I'm still cycling and swimming regularly... I also usually fit some cross country skiing and walking / tramping in to my life each year...

Since 2020 my regular swims have periodically been disrupted by Covid-10 lockdowns, so I've substituted regular long local walks instead at these times. I continue to cycle regularly. In 2020 & 2021 my usual skiing arrangements were disrupted (due to lockdowns and the lack of overseas travel) so I substituted a walk / hike instead of the Australian 42 km XC ski marathon - about 50 km in 2020 (which I completed in the dark!) and just over 42 km this year (2021). 

Who thinks that you can't still be fit when you're older than fifty?!?

"I did a little better than I hoped. However, the going was tough in the last few kilometres."

-100-year-old Robert Marchand in 2012, on cycling 100 kilometres in an age-graded record time of 4 hours and 17 minutes.

In Christchurch since the 2010 / 20111 earthquakes there are fewer public pools which are fully operational all year round than there used to be [when I lived in Christchurch the council had 4 all year round 25 m pools in the city] - hence the existing pools are well used. The new 50 m Metro Sports pool is not scheduled for completion until 2022. I swam at the pool nearest to my home ["Pioneer"] regularly after work. The pool is rarely quiet: there are only 5 lanes in the 25 m pool, & often 2 or more lanes are needed for classes, so the lanes are almost always busy. Hence my swims took me longer than before I moved to Christchurch - and I broke my ankle in September 2015, which also didn't help... or maybe I shouldn't make excuses for taking longer when I'm getting older?! Before I broke my ankle I was swimming 120 lengths (3 km) in 100 - 105 minutes on most of my visits to the pool, but because I was taking significantly longer to complete that distance I usually swam 80 lengths (2 km) on weeknights, unless I completed 80 lengths in under 80 minutes, in which case I swam 120 lengths. So I accrued a shorter total distance than in earlier years, although I often spent a similar time in the pool on each visit! Since moving to Ōamaru I have managed to increase my speed back to 120 lengths in 105 minutes. However my swimming season ticket has been on hold since the lockdown which began in August 2021. I have not been swimming since then because of the more limited opportunities for swimming and the time limits imposed on pool users during "level 2" lockdowns.

In 2018 I swam 136 km (less than my usual distance as the local pool was closed for several months for earthquake repairs). - equivalent to swimming across the English Channel nearly 4 times. To put my efforts into perspective, I swim in small batches (i.e. several visits to my local pool each week) in the slow lane. My cumulative totals are not in the same league as any of the marathon swims which I have tabled details of below. The waters which these people swim in are much more treacherous than those of my local pool! Crossing times in open and exposed waters are largely determined by strong and sometimes unpredictable currents, but also by the weather and the water temperature. Women feature strongly in these records - some of these waters have not been conquered by men: 

• Colleen Blair was the first person to swim across the Pentland Firth in 2011. Later in the same year Andrea Gellan undercut Colleen’s time by 2 hours!
• The English Channel / La Manche was first swum by Matthew Webb in 1875; the first woman to swim it was Gertrude Ederle, in 1926. In 2022 a 36 year old Australian, Chloe McCardle, completed her 44th swim of it: she has swum it more often than anyone else. She stated "I really want to inspire young people, especially girls, and show them that anything is possible."
• The  Bass Strait was first swum by a woman, Tammy van Wisse, in 1996.
• Maori tradition says that a woman, Hine Poupou, was the first to swim the Cook Strait – accompanied by a dolphin; other accounts tell of at least one other swimmer who conquered the strait in 1831. In more recent times, Barrie Devonport swam across in 1962; in 1975 Lynne Cox was the first woman to swim it.
• Foveaux Strait was first swum in 1963 by John van Leeuwen. The first woman to conquer the Strait was Meda McKenzie, in 1979.
• In 2012 Penny Palfrey swam more than half way from Florida to Cuba (through shark – infested waters) before abandoning her attempt. 

Further food for thought

New Zealand has the third highest drowning rate in the developed world. Nearly 90% of those who drown in NZ waters are male, and 90% of those who drown are aged over 15. Our high rate of adult male deaths bucks the global trend of under-5-year-olds being the main victims. Surprisingly for an island nation with 11,000 km of coastline, 525,000 km of rivers and 3820 lakes, 70% of 12-year-olds can't swim 200 metres. Earlier surveys found that half of 10-year-olds can't swim 25 metres.

from article in NZ Herald, 12 January 2012.