I had a really good swim the other day and my last 50 meters (the long length of the pool) I did in 51.5 seconds. Which is pretty awesome.
Pumped up from that, I hit the pool today and while I wasn’t going to break any records – I was looking forward to my swim.
There was a woman already swimming in the lane and since she was alone in the lane, she was swimming down the middle. Once I was sure she saw me and moved over to one side, I hopped in and got started. And as we went along, we naturally split the lane and were completely out of each other’s way.
Enter then, the Dirtbags. DB1 (the leader), DB2, and DB3. All were much faster swimmers than we were and at least two of them were getting direction from one of the swim coaches.
So, there’s strike one. They had the rest of the pool for training, but had to take over the one Open Swim Lane.
There were 5 of us for a bit, but the woman that was there stopped swimming almost as soon as these guys got in.
So, strike two. Lane hogging and driving people out is not right.
And then, DB1 went full DB. On nearly every lap, he would stop and rest at the shallow end and then wait until just after I’d turned around. Then he’d take off and pass me – flailing around enough to swamp water in my face as he went past and then cutting me off as he got in front of me. See, he wasn’t quite fast enough to pull that mauvere off since there were two other guys in the pool. So, I’d have to stop so I didn’t get kicked in the head and wait for him to go on ahead.
Over and over again.
And I got angrier and angrier each time he did it. I finished my laps and got out of the pool, almost frothing in fury.
I got dressed angrily, went out to my car angrily, and had to work to keep my anger in check on the drive home – and then cooked dinner angrily.
Once I had some food in my belly and some perspective, I realized it was pointless – as most anger is.
None of these guys were doing anything intentionally malicious – if anything, they were probably mad at me for being so slow. Though, I was there first.
Instead, it was more likely that they just didn’t give a shit. I just utterly didn’t matter and they gave no thought to me at all. Which is no better, but whatever.
Incidentally, DB1 was doing it wrong. If you need to pass someone, you’re supposed to tap them on the foot and then they’ll stop at the end of the lane and let you pass. Those are the rules. And I did stop to let them pass – it just didn’t work since they would stop too.
So, they didn’t run me out, but they did put a damper on me. It feels good to power through the water and feel like laps melt away – but less fun to get passed and swamped and nearly kicked in the head.
Over – and did I mention? Over again.
I’m hoping that when the summer session hits we won’t see them as much. I don’t mind sharing a lane with someone courteous – but if these guys stick around I’m going to get a membership at the rec center just to avoid the fight.
So, I don’t think they were really trying to be dirtbags, but they were and I’m still cranky about it.