I’m fed up with the pools I swim at

I live in a small college town, and have 3 pools in the summer to choose form for swim workouts (two 50 meter pools, one indoor, one outdoor, and one indoor 25 yard pool). I swim during lap swim times, by myself (the masters team swims at lunch time, which doesn’t work for my work schedule). All I want is two 45 minute sessions a week where I can swim in a lane with other people close to my speed, or at minimum, with people who know how to swim in a lane with other people. Now the outdoor pool is instituting circle swim only – all the time. This is not good. I was informed of this last week when an old man asked to share my lane, and qualified the request with a ‘I am very slow’, and since there were just two of us (and the pool was not crowded), I suggested we split the lane. 200 meters later the manager stopped me and said I had to circle swim – safety reasons. On top of this requirement now, you are only allowed to pass people at the walls – so how does that impact a workout when you are trying to swim repeats at your pace, and run into a slower person 15 meters off the wall and have to wait 35meters before you can pass them! Last night I went to the pool for a 30 minute easy swim. I figure I can tough out any annoyances since I’m just doing 30 minutes ez. They had signs at each lane stating circle swimming required in small print, and a few other rules (only pass at wall, swim on right side, stay to far corner on the wall). 10 minutes into my swim, a woman asks to share my lane, I say of course, and she asks me if we should split or circle (she did this with hand gestures, so I take this as a bad sign). She is sitting right next to the sign saying to circle swim, and is asking me to split the lane. WOW - Those signs really work! Oh yeah, I forgot to add that they designated 2 lanes as group swim, like they do for the masters swimmers, to try to encourage swimmers doing workouts to use them. SO I was in one, the woman in the other was practicing floating on her back at the wall and then doing a modified elementary backstroke for a lap, more floating, more whatever she was doing. Again, another super successful attempt by the pool management to make swimming better for everyone. When she got out of the pool, the woman in my lane moved into that lane, and 5 minutes later old man from last week came to my lane and asked if I share lanes. I said everyone here has to share lanes. He says ‘not everyone shares nicely’. I just stared at him, when he said ‘I am very slow but we (he and his wife) are going to get in your lane’! of course they are – why would they choose any of the other 9 lanes with some slower people when I have “I’m a glutton for punishment, come swim in my lane” plastered on my swimcap! I got out and left. I swear by next spring I am going to build a small pool in my backyard and drop in a fastlane so I never have to deal with rec swimmers, or management who doesn’t seem to want to provide a decent swim experience for everyone.

I’m SOOOOOOOOO over it!