The other day I got up to go to my local Y and swim some laps. Mind you, I get up really early to work out-my alarm goes off at 5 A.M. (Technically 4:55 since the clock is 5 minutes fast-I’m always running late in the morning trying to get my kindergartner on the bus on time-but you don’t need to hear about that.) Anyway, I was really dragging, but I still managed to crawl my way out to the car and make it to the pool and dive in. I even managed to push myself enough to make my workout really count. And then this happened:
Believe it or not, the pool is decently busy at that hour of the morning-usually two people per lane for a three-lane pool. So people swim side-by-side and can happily do their own thing. But today an interloper came in. Usually when that happens, you switch to a circle swim-down on one side, back on the other, just like driving a car-so that people can pass/be passed if they are working out at a different pace. But this guy (who was swimming laps but didn’t even get his hair wet-even while doing backstroke-does that count as “swimming”?) kept trying to do side-by-side with three of us in the lane. I happened to be going at a much faster pace, but when he stopped at the wall, he didn’t let me turn and go ahead (which is normal swimming etiquette), but instead he just pushed off and kept going. Argh!
It ended up being such a frustrating experience trying to work around him that it ruined the end of what had otherwise been a much-fought-for great workout. I’m sure this was a wonderful and kind man out of the gym; but somehow he’s never learned the rules of the pool.
Am I just being a gym snob? Do you ever get annoyed when people don’t follow some basic gym etiquette (i.e. wipe off their sweaty marks on gym machines!)? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Vent away right here!
cahikol 