Last Wednesday night the team got together at NECC. Kristen Sidman, the school’s Director of Occupational Therapy and Adapted Physical Education, filled us in on the new pool. A few things I learned:

• Custom design. NECC’s pool, instead of sloping from the short sides, slopes from one long side to the other. Stairs make up one entire long side. This allows a greater area for use in class sessions.
• Maintenance. It’s incredibly expensive to maintain an indoor pool. Chemicals, heating, equipment. It adds up quickly to the tune of over $100,000 annually. Kristen described the dynamic nature of a pool in that chemicals and temperatures were continuously changing and the computer system keeps everything in balance.
• Safety. The school’s top priority. There are no diving platforms or extraneous equipment. The student/aide ratio in the pool is one-to-one. There is also a ratio of swimmers to life guards and anyone in the pool area is considered a potential swimmer.

It truly is a beautiful pool and, knowing how much John loves the water, a tremendous resource for the students at NECC.

For the remainder of the meeting our coaches Leon and Sally gave their perspective on running the Boston Marathon. Both have run it multiple times so they know the course well. It was great hearing about their experiences and how the race has changed over the years.

Last Modified : November 2nd, 2009 Filed under : marathon, necc Navigate : Previous post / Next post