By JOSEPH KELLARD
"I missed it by less than a ... hair," the Oceanside resident said about the race, which took place in the Nassau County Aquatic Center at Eisenhower Park on April 30.
But for Benson, the most rewarding part of swimming is the fun and camaraderie of training and competing in about a half-dozen meets with his AquaFit masters teammates each year. It¹s a camaraderie he got a taste of when he started swimming back in his junior year at Jamaica High School in the late 1960s. Ever the jokester, Benson, who¹s now an attorney, described himself then as "the worst swimmer on the worst team in the best division."
Benson said that despite his lowly status as a high school swimmer, the team kept him, because he was "one of the hardest-working guys on the team." Nevertheless, he swam for one year, and that was it. "I became a hippy, and the rest of those years were a kind of blur," he recalled. "It was my own personal Tet Offensive."
The swimming bug didn¹t bite Benson again until seven years ago, when he turned 46 and decided to train for the Seacrest-Oyster Bay Spring Triathlon. That spring and summer, he biked and ran on the Long Beach boardwalk and swam at a nearby pool, all before heading to his Garden City law firm each morning. As to how he finished in that race, Benson isn¹t specific, saying only that while he didn¹t earn a gold medal, he did earn a complimentary T-shirt and a luggage bag "that I still use today."
Benson competed in a few other triathlons, but found the bike training less than enjoyable. He did, however, develop a new-found love of the water. "It¹s not stressful on your body," he said. "It¹s very zen, because it¹s just you and the water. You can lose yourself in what you¹re doing and forget your day."
Benson first visited the Nassau County Aquatic Center when it opened in December 1998, and joined the AquaFit masters group, a team of about 150 swimmers ranging in age from 19 to 95. At 53, Benson has regained his high school reputation for being among the hardest-working, most fearless competitors, taking part in events that even his more advanced teammates find difficult or impossible to finish, such as the 200 butterfly and the 400 individual medley (which involves all four competitive strokes: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle).
"Rich ... has never been one to shy away from new challenges," said Lisa Baumann, AquaFit¹s coach and program director. "...Rich has come into his own in the pool, learning new swimming skills and pushing the limit as he routinely checks off new accomplishments in his quest to tackle and successfully compete in what are frequently known as two of the most difficult swimming disciplines ..."
"This sport is all about longevity ... and what you lack in talent you make up in guts," Benson said.
He had long wanted to break three minutes in the 200-yard butterfly, and did so at the 2003 U.S. Masters Swimming national championships in Hawaii, recording a time of 2:58. Benson placed ninth in his age group in that race, and considers it the best accomplishment of his masters swimming career ... so far. Baumann was instrumental in getting him there, teaching him the finer points of all four strokes, which he practices daily. "Lisa drills us constantly in practice to find and hold our pace, swimming repeat 100s and 200s, trying to keep the same time for each set of eight or 10 100s," Benson said.
These days, Benson still heads to the Long Beach pool at 6 a.m. three days a week, continuing to push himself to perfect his strokes and increase his speed and endurance. Still, the camaraderie he shares with Baumann and his fellow AquaFit teammates at the East Meadow pool is the fuel that keeps him going. "They are the nicest group of people," he said. "You can get better advice from other swimmers, and everybody is gracious in heaping out and accepting advice."
When Benson isn't swimming to compete, he¹s swimming to raise money for charities, and when he isn¹t swimming, he plays a mean bass guitar for the rock band Plain Jane, which covers everything from Led Zeppelin to the Black Crowes to Velvet Revolver. Benson has lived in Oceanside since 1993 with his wife of 27 years, Gayle, a paralegal, and their son and daughter, all of whom have been supportive of swimming, particularly his solo trips to places like Hawaii and Arizona.
Last weekend, Benson¹s 83-year-old mother made the drive from Miami to Coral Springs, Fla., to watch her son compete‹wearing his famous red-and-black Spider-man spandex racing suit‹in the 2006 USMS Nationals. "She hasn't seen me race since I was 9," said Benson, who finished 10th in the 50 to 54 age group in the 400 I.M. medley. Heading into the nationals, Benson¹s personal best in the 400 I.M.‹ which is even more arduous than the 200 fly‹was 6:29, and his goal in Florida was to get under that mark. His time was 6:27.
But as always, the fuel that keeps him going is the abundance of support he gets from his AquaFit teammates. "When you¹re swimming and you hear them cheering for you, it¹s a great feeling," he said. "It makes you feel like a star."
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
