 |
MARSHFIELD
with news from the Marshfield Mariner and Patriot Ledger |
 |
Marshfield nun qualifies for national event
July 8, 2008
By Lydia Mulvany
Sister Eileen McCarthy of Marshfield, 75, was never a couch potato, but she was also never an athlete. Affiliated with the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a missionary and teaching order, the Jamaica Plain native entered the convent right after high school and devoted her life to teaching.
Then she turned 50.
It was the 1980s, and McCarthy jogging was “getting to be the thing to do. So I thought, ‘sounds good.’”
She jogged for more than a decade until knee surgery put an end to it. She took up swimming in 1999. The backstroke looked easy. To motivate herself to get into the pool, she started signing up for competitions.
“I realized then that I didn't know how to swim,” she said.
Self-taught, McCarthy qualified for the National Senior Olympics the year she started and took 40th place. She took lessons after that, and has been finishing around 10th place ever since. This year, she finished first in the 50-, 100- and 200- meter backstroke in the 75-to-79 age group during the Massachusetts state qualifying meet in June. At nationals in San Francisco next year, she's hoping to break top 10.
“I'm getting faster actually, which is great, because when you get older you usually get slower,” she said. “I've tried to improve in my own time, or learn the stroke better and the different nuances in the stroke and see how it will enhance my swimming.”
McCarthy swims at the Percy Walker Pool in Duxbury and trains according to a book called Fitness Swimming, which offers a training schedule focusing on technique, endurance and speed.
“I'm not doing mindless laps; I'm focusing on a specific aspect of the stroke,” she said.
Her best times are one minute, 14 seconds for 50 meters; 2:50 for 100 meters; and 5:43 for 200 meters.
When she’s not swimming or weight training, McCarthy works as a private tutor and resides in a cozy studio at Winslow Village in Marshfield. She does parish work at St. Christine’s, specifically helping people to find their calling and figure out how best to answer their calling.
“People have a sense of their being called, and the sense of call is very important,” she said. “People can sign up and talk about their calling.”