It was an amazingly beautiful day today and everyone had the same idea--laps at the pool. The pool at my gym is outdoors and on the rooftop, which is one of the main reasons I joined, and on a day like today, it was awesome. When a lane has 2 people in it, both swimmers "split the lane," meaning they each stay on their own side and swim laps. Where there are 3 or more people in the lane, swimmers "circle" counter-clock-wise in the lane. This afternoon all of the lanes had at least 2 people in them, so one of the lifeguards started helping me find a lane. The fastest swimmers usually swim in the middle 2 lanes, the next fastest group swim in the lanes to the outside of the fast, and slowest in the lanes on the walls. This is just how it goes...I didn't make up the rules. My gym didn't create some new set of swimming rules...this is just how it goes. So a woman clearly swimming slowly (she didn't even have goggles or a swim cap) was in the second lane from the wall; she should have been in the lane on the wall. I am not a fast swimmer and I never go in the fast lanes; however, I do know I am faster than a woman who when doing the breaststroke doesn't get her face wet. She was leisurely swimming and that is fine, she and I have the same right to use the pool. Just do it in the slow lane. So when the lifeguard asked her to switch lanes, she refused, saying she was too fast for the slow lane and if she went in that lane, she wouldn't get a good workout. I told the lifeguard, ok, no problem, I'll just join her (and the other gal, who was, by the way, faster than this woman too) in the lane. We began "circling" and several times I passed this woman or went around her at the wall. Then I overheard her complaining to the lifeguard, the girl with the pink cap (me) should go in another lane! Oy!
So, I did go to another lane and apparently didn't make those people very happy either. So, the lifeguard asked me to move again! I did and I even had a lane to myself for a little while. Geez! All I wanted to do was swim.
I didn't say anything to the woman or the lifeguard, who was trying really hard to make the situation right. While I do let things get to me, I think I am pretty good at letting others roll off my back. Mostly, I think because I don't have enough room in my brain for it all! I could have said something mean to the woman, but then I would have looked like a jerk (and felt like one) and really, it wouldn't have solved anything. I don't need her crabbiness to make me crabby. I swim to get a workout and to get rid of any stress in my life, not add to it.
Moral of today: Don't be a jerk at the pool. Share. Be nice.
Hmmm..sounds a lot like kindergarten.
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