Got to the pool yesterday afternoon to find an interesting and unusual assortment of characters. The "baby pool" was filled with probably 8 or 10 not petite, non-English speaking adult men playing water basketball. Okaaayyy. So that probably explains why one of the lanes of the regular pool is filled with screaming, splashing kids. There were four other lanes for swimming at the time, all of them occupied with 1-2 people, so Stuart hopped in there. The last lane is reserved for (primarily kids') swim lessons, but the swim instructor likes me so she lets me share the lane.
Start swimming and after about 20min I almost run into the backside of an elderly woman. WTF? "Um, ma'am? I'm here, and because of the swim lesson we can't circle swim so you need to change lanes." She harumphs, but leaves the pool. The coach thanks me, since this lady has apparently done this before. Next time I see her she has again slid into another lane without notifying the existing swimmers, and is again slowly slowly slowly bobbing her way down the lane. Unfortunately, she happened to choose Stuart's lane. sorry, honey!
Only a few minutes more pass and it's time for the dreaded water aerobics. That's right. A dozen or so women bobbing up and down in place claim ownership of three lanes of the pool. We usually try to time our workouts to be done or close to done before this happens, both because the principle of water aerobics annoys us and because it means only two lanes are available for swimming. But....don't forget all those screaming, splashing kids. They now run over and jump in one of the two available lanes....where three women are already trying to do their workouts! I finally stop swimming to watch the carnage. At this point, there are now SIX adults swimming in one lane, 4 kids playing in one lane, a dozen or so "aerobics" people, and me in the instruction lane. I got a bit more of my workout done, but to be honest, Stuart couldn't take it so I agreed to leave with him.
Needless to say, I'll be talking to the pool management today. Seriously, why are we paying for access to a swimming pool if swimming is the activity that the management seems least interested in accommodating? The poor onsite manager is just a teenager - she was ill equipped to get the adults out of the baby pool and the kids out of a lap lane. I struggle as it is to get myself to the pool and try to pretend that I enjoy it. Why do they have to conspire to make it that much tougher?
2 months ago
3 comments:
I feel for you! I go to the Y. Luckily I go early enough during the week that it is just lap swim. But later it does start and my hubby would go and just complain because of the little space. They are expanding our facility but have just started the earth moving for construction. It is going to be a while.
I too feel your pain. Here's a look a my YMCA pool:
Early morning: A mix of swimmers, triathletes, and old people sharing lanes, plus the aerobics class (which luckily is NOT in lanes) and/or mommy/baby swim class.
Early Morning (in the summer): Most lanes are taken over by the local kids' swim team, which practices for two hours.
Mid-Morning: Lanes are taken up by the local mommy-triathlete group.
Noon: NEVER go there during the summer if you want to keep your sanity!!!
After work: Lanes are occupied by everything you just described x 10.
Ugh, I'm sorry for you both! Truly, I think the job from hell would be Aquatics Director at a public pool - so many people who all want claim to the pool (not to mention the perfect water temperature - 79 for swimmers and 90 for the water aerobics folks!). I always try to avoid water aerobics times when I hit the public pools, unless of course you're looking for that open-water sloshing around kind of feeling!
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