Can I have a moment to just vent?
Maybe it's the summer heat. Maybe because I can't run and it's driving me batty. Maybe because it has rained every day this week and it's been hard to find activities for the kiddo and me. Maybe it's because the kiddo hasn't taken a nap this week. Whatever. I about flipped out at the Y this morning.
School is out for summer and the Y is crawling with kids. Summer camp is held every day from 9-noon, which is in the range of time in which I go to the gym. Summer camp has reduced the swim lanes down to 3 or 4, depending on the availability of the outside pool. Because it was pouring down rain this morning, the outdoor pool was not open for camp. Therefore, there were only three lanes available for lap swimming. And when I got out to the pool deck, they were all full. There was a very large older man waiting on a lane, so I stood there and waited too. One lane already had two people in it and the two other lanes were only occupied by one person each. Both were not very good swimmers. Neither could hold a straight line and both had such bad form that they were taking up the whole lane. One of the ladies I see there every day and knew I didn't want to share a lane with her. The other was swimming backstroke with her arms literally out to the side. Let's say if you're swimming with your hands above your head you're swimming with your hands at zero or 90 degrees. Her arms were flailing at 45 degrees. Understand? Anyway, she came to the end of the lane and asked me if I wanted to share. She said she only had a few minutes left. I asked the very large gentleman if he wanted it, he was first, and he let me go ahead. By the time I got my cap and goggles on, she had already hopped out of the pool. Why did she even ask me to share? So, I did the nice thing and asked Mr. Large Man if he wanted to share. He reluctantly said yes and warned me that he had a lot of gear. He did. He had a snorkel and GIANT fins. I mean, giant. They were like scuba fins but stiffer. By the time he got all his junk together I had already swam like 500 yards. When he did get swimming he was terrible. Look, I shouldn't critique. I'm no Michael Phelps. But geesh. He was splashing and flailing and not even using his fins at all. Shoot. If I was wearing those fins I would have been across the pool in three seconds. At one point I came up for air and he splashed me full in the face. Awesome. I'm used to open water swimming. I can handle that. The another time he about took my arm off with his. I was hugging the line to tightly I was touching it with every stroke and he still clothes-lined me. By this point I had had enough. I had only swam 1000 yards but it was enough. I hopped out, collected my kid, and went on home.
Seriously, what time do I need to go to the pool to not have to share a lane or at least share a lane with someone who can actually swim?!?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I feel your pain. We had memberships at LA Fitness until last month and the swimming was ridiculous. We would constantly have walkers in all lanes, spectators [creepy guys who would sit on the stairs and just watch], and weaving swimmers. People wouldn't pay any attention to pool protocol. If you're going to share a lane, make sure the current swimmer knows you're joining, etc. I can't tell you how many times I swam into walkers who had joined my lane, THAT I WAS CURRENTLY SHARING WITH ANOTHER SWIMMER. Gah. Sometimes I just really hate people.
Post a Comment