While she was a competitive swimmer for much of her younger years, the pinnacle came at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.
The 14-year-old Lowe broke the Commonwealth record for the 200-metre breaststroke during the heats, but the pressure told in the final, where she missed claiming bronze by milliseconds, finishing fourth.
"On reflection I was only 14 and, like many teenagers, I lacked self-belief. My coaches forgot to tell me I was up to it and I succumbed to the pressure," Lowe recalled.
"It was a bit of a watershed year too, I guess. My mother died the same year."
Years later, back in Wanganui, Lowe remained heavily involved in Wanganui swimming circles.
"All of my children can swim, but my youngest was the one to really take it up competitively."
After running her own swim school for a period of time, the opportunity came up to become even more involved.
"We had just lost a coach here in town and my daughter was really getting into it, so Wayne Dewe and I set up One Aquatic, an organisation that delivered coaching and mentoring services.
"Wayne had just finished his term as president of Swimming NZ and the SCG had amalgamated with the Aramoho Club to form the Wanganui Swimming Club which had its base at the Splash Centre and still does.
"We hired Matt Bos, a young coach from America. He was fantastic, but decided to return home to the States after about 18 months. He had a young family and got a top coaching job back in his homeland."
Wanganui then had a regional structure as paid administrator Sandra Shepherd, with One Aquatic, provided the coaching services.
"With Matt leaving it left a bit of a gap. That's when I moved into the coaching role," Lowe said.
And she was well qualified for the job, drawing on skills learned during her competitive swimming days and managerial roles.
"I had managed national teams at international meets including the University Games in Turkey, Panpac Games in Hawaii and Paralympics as well."
Under Lowe's skilful direction, Wanganui swimmers were beginning to get noticed performing on the national stage.
It was always going to be difficult to cut it with the larger clubs for the metropolitan centres, but the Wanganui competitors were regularly setting personal bests and smashing Wanganui records that had been held for years, even decades in some cases.
"It never ceased to amaze me what our young swimmers could achieve, and yet few of them realised that themselves. Much of my coaching was a combination of technique and ensuring the mindsets were right.
"Most people have little idea the volume of work these youngsters put in to become competitive.
"They are up at 5am every morning training in the pool, have breakfast there and then going to school smelling of chlorine.
"It's tough on kids of that age and it really impresses me how many of them deal with that kind of pressure," Lowe said.
Top swimmers, she said, were usually made through incremental training regimes and an appreciation of team culture.
"It needs to be taken slowly at the start steadily building up when each individual can deal with the extra workload and I can't stress the need for a strong team culture."
Lowe said while she will miss the young swimmers, the early mornings are a thing of the past.
"I have no trouble sleeping in before going to my new job these days."
Lowe is an educator for Wanganui company Paua Early Childhood Home Based Care Service and she's loving it.
