The swimming programs on Mercer Island have a storied history. For years, the high school and summer programs have been considered some of the best in the area. Now the master swimmers can add their names to the list.

Under the U.S. Master Swimmers program, Go the Distance, swimmers from the area who practice at the Mercerwood Shore Club won the 2009 national championship, swimming more meters than any other group in the nation.

The group of swimmers meets Monday through Friday mornings at the Shore Club, which gives them a dedicated pool space from 5:30 to 7 a.m. Though they’ve been getting together as a loosely formed group for the past 14 years, 2008 was the first year that any of the swimmers entered the Go the Distance program.

Tom Grandine said he got the idea to participate in the program after setting a personal goal to swim a million meters. He said he was turning 50 in 2008 and it seemed like a good goal to have, pushing himself, which is how he came across Go the Distance. The program allows participants to keep track of the meters they swim throughout the year.

“It was a great way to celebrate turning 50,” said Grandine. “I got to a million and thought, OK, how can I turn it up? So I said, let’s all do it in 2009.” The idea caught on and the entire group joined the effort. Grandine convinced two other members, Howard Jess and Adair Dingle, to try for a million meters, and both completed the goal. In 2009, the group swam 7,266 miles, 25 meters at a time, five mornings a week.

“At the end of the year, it ended up that we did more than any other workout group in the country,” he said. Grandine said a huge part of the group’s success is directly thanks to the Shore Club.

“No one has been as generous as they have been to us,” said Grandine. “They have been a key enabler in making this happen.”

Jess, another longtime member of the group and member of the Shore Club, did hit his million mark last year and actually upped his goal in the fall because he was going to be ahead of target. This year, Jess said he is aiming for 520 miles, just around the 800,000 meter mark.

“It’s a combination of the people; it’s a really nice social group,” said Jess of what has kept him coming back for the past 14 years. “I tried for a couple of years to swim by myself, and it’s so much nicer to go swim with a group and have a coach who creates the workouts.”

The Redwoods, as they are affectionately known, have around 30 participants, including a wide variety of age ranges and swimming experience levels. In those five days, if everyone is going strong, Grandine said they can hit 15 miles per person. Grandine joined the group around six years ago when he started looking for a new workout group.

“The people I met there were exactly what I needed,” said Grandine. Fellow swimmer Mike Schaeffer has been doing the workouts essentially since the group started 14 years ago. Originally, the group would swim at the Shore Club during the summer months, as the club did not have the bubble to keep the pool warm enough during the winter, but once the bubble was built they moved to the Shore Club year-round.

In 2009, Grandine swam 1.2 million meters, and Schaeffer racked up 630,000. His goal for this year is 750,000 meters.

Schaeffer said he has been a lifelong swimmer who took a 20-year hiatus spending his time running and biking before a bad hip slowed him down. Now he is back in the pool five or six days a week.

“It’s always harder to train in anything by yourself,” he said. “This way you show up to push yourself and your teammates. They notice when you aren’t there.”

This year, the USMS changed the program, making it so that distances are attributed to the association rather than the workout group, meaning that the Redwoods’ 2010 distance will be added into the Pacific Northwest Aquatic group’s overall distance.

“It’s a way for me to feel good at an older age,” said Grandine. “I can tell the difference between a day that’s gotten off with a swim and one that hasn’t.”

While participation in the group doesn’t require being a member at the Shore Club, there are several in the group who are.

“We welcome anyone who wants to come and give it a try,” said Grandine.