Race Report - Magnificent Millfield (#759)

Patrick W. Brundage
Oct 11
5 min read

Updated: Oct 13

12 October 2025

I am no expert on the intersection of the British school system with elite sports performance, but I have learned enough from living here almost two years to know that Millfield Prepatory School has an impressive aquatic pedigree. When I saw an afternoon meet pop on the Swimming England Masters calendar, the Southwest Region Open Meet, I knew I had to make the trip.

It did not disappoint.

This facility, dedicated in 1995, has a reverential air, from the vaulted skylight which somehow draws your attention to both the centre lanes and to the ceiling at the same time, to the pictures, Olympic medals, list of former pupils who were Olympians dating back to 1968 (see picture on the right), and displays in the entry ways and hallways. It signals excellence, and respect for its history. Its banners around the stands exhort all to be classically great (curious and brilliant) while aligning to modern sensibilities (be kind, authentic and disruptors).

The noon start time meant I could catch a decently timed train from Paddington to nearby Castle Clary, then a taxi to the pool (because the otherwise daily bus doesn’t run on Sundays), arriving with plenty of time to get changed, dynamically stretched, activated, and warmed up. With my focus on racing fly through to Canadian Masters Nationals, I entered all three races to baseline myself seven months ahead of that focus meet. Fortunately, the 200 fly was my first event, going off a little after 2pm, but the 50 and 100 were back-to-back at about 4pm and 4:20pm.

In my training since starting this fly focus, I have taken a couple of ideas I gathered from a recent Gold Medal Mel / SwimSwam interview with Cam McEvoy, the great Aussie sprinter (2024 Olympic Gold and 2025 World Champion in the 50 free). Nicknamed the “Professor” because of the way he applies his math/physics academic degree to the pool, Mr. McEvoy is also trying to revolutionize (at least) sprint training.

There’s a lot to take from that video, but one takeaway is this: he only trains his freestyle at race pace because, compared with slow or even aerobic swimming, the physics of how your body sits in the water when sprinting is fundamentally different and the “neural imprinting” you want of stroke rate, stroke length, stroke style are different. He ONLY wants to imprint SPEED. That might mean some days he only does 6 x 12.5 meters of full stroke swimming, but it is done truly at the target race pace.

Now, my main goal is to ultimately swim a great 200 fly. So, I can’t do sets that short. But, what I have focused on is only swimming fly at one of two paces - target 50 fly or target 200 fly - so I am trying to imprint fast fly technique. I am doing no more than 25s or 50s at a time, to ensure I am not letting my stroke technique disintegrate. But, I've been doing very little volume - since racing in early August in Manchester, I've averaged just under 5,000 meters of swimming per week (about 1/3rd to 1/4th my typical weekly volume), but with a much higher percentage of fast swimming.

The other big component, in fact the biggest component, of Cam’s training is heavy emphasis on working in the weight room to get stronger. I am VERY far from doing that, but I have been emphasizing three dryland sessions each week, a mix of the shoulder and elbow/forearm PT exercises I need to do with some core, leg and upper body strength work. My aim is to keep this focus over this season and to add as much dose and intensity in the weight room to get stronger.

Based upon my results today, I am off to a good start.

200 Fly

I was telling one of my teammates of my race strategy for the 200 fly - sleep the first 100, start cautiously building the 3rd 50 without getting too excited, and then let it rip the last 50. To put that into practical terms, my stroke count goal was 6-8-8-8-9-9-10-whatever by 25s, paired with 3 underwater dolphin kicks off each wall. I executed both of those well. I had also wanted to not breathe the first stroke off each wall, as that helps me get into the right connection of my stroke, hips and kick, but that only lasted through the 100 and I started breathing the first stroke off the wall after the 125.

The result was a race that felt great and a very solid time - 2:26.38.

To put it into perspective:

I swam my very first Masters 200 SCM fly 20 years ago and went 2:25.93

My "Age 50+" best was from 2020, my last meet before the COVID lockdown, when I went 2:25.09
This almost ties my 55+ Masters best of 2:26.35 from 2023
... and it would have ranked me second in the world using the 2024 rankings

This was still quite far from my very best Masters result, back in 2011 when I went 2:15.35 ... but it gives me confidence for my season goal to see how close I can come to that!

50 Fly

After racing a 30.00 time on the dot a couple of weeks ago at K2 Crawley, I was determined to get under that barrier. From that race, I liked the 7-8 underwater dolphin kicks I did off the start and turn, but felt like I breathed too much. So, in this race, I didn’t breathe until the turn, and then only once on the second 25. That felt right. What was a bit off is going too deep on the start, and a long glide into both the turn and finish. Still, the 29.62 result made me very happy. I've still a ways to go to get back to the 28.69 from when I had barely turned 50, but I think I can get there.

100 Fly

I wasn’t expecting much from the 100 fly. I did a 300 recovery swim right after the 50 fly and then relaxed on the deck, but it certainly felt like less than 20 minutes had passed before I was on the blocks again. I set myself with a goal of just executing the race plan: 3-5 underwater dolphin kicks every length, no breathing on the first stroke off each wall, and trying to be at 9-10 strokes per length. In the end, I was far better on all accounts: 5-6 underwater dolphin kicks every length and 6-8-8-10 strokes per length. The time of 1:04.77 was my “Age 50+” best, a couple of tenths ahead of the 1:04.98 I had done back in February.

Post-Meet Mellow Joy

Following the meet, a swimming couple who now live down in these parts, but who are still affiliated with my Barnet Copthall team from their long lives in London, gave me a lift back to the Castle Clary train station. This gave us all a little more time to get to know each other, share our athletic and "parents of athletes" stories. Thanks, Neil and Sue!!

This interchange is almost from a movie - a lonely, but well-maintained depot that's surrounding by fields, cows and, over a hill or two, the quaint little town of the same name.

I arrived at the station in plenty of time to catch the 6:23pm train back to London ... only to find it cancelled. That gave me enough time to stroll through classic, stunning, British pastoral landscapes and into the ye olde worlde town to grab some dinner. While a number of restaurants do exist, the only two open on a Sunday evening were the local pub and the local kebab/doner shop. I didn't have enough time for the pub, so grabbed a "doner dinner of champions" and strolled back to the station to wait for the later train ...