Modest reflections from the master of bluewater swimming
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday February 12, 2011
LOOK at that body and ask yourself: is that the body of a 57 year old?While most men his age are oiling their hips, reaching for the specs and putting the kettle on at 8am on a Saturday morning, Don Boland has just completed his sixth ocean swim for the week."Ten to four I wake up," said the modern-day Adonis from the central coast.His wife is sick of his enslavement - "she puts her hands over and the bed's cold" - but it will take a lot to stop Boland, who is still swimming the Dardanelles and trouncing competitors half his age and twice his calibre.He is a strapping man but a modest one.When asked how it felt to have finished last weekend's two-kilometre Herald Cole Classic ocean swim one second in front of the Beijing Olympian Andrew Lauterstein, the swimming instructor was quick to deflect praise. He said his elite competitor had struggled with illness and was probably more at home in the pool.Completing the swim from Shelley beach to Manly in 27 minutes and 42 seconds, Boland easily topped the over-55s category and became one of only six amateur athletes to lay claim to one of the 20 fastest times set on the day.He said his achievements are, in part, a result of a tough training regime. "I train six mornings a week and then race on the seventh." And even when he's not in the water, his mind is never far from it."There's other things in life as well but really I'm just a physical person. I start feeling a bit depressed if I don't exercise."Boland was a swimmer at school, coached by the legendary Don Talbot, but a long hiatus was broken only six years ago after he injured himself in pursuit of his other love, horseriding.A lifetime of surfing lured him out of the pool and into the sea. "Surfing will be the thing that stops me [ocean swimming] eventually; I'll just go back to the surfing."It pains his wife to hear it.
© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald