holding court at the pool

My first two real days of vacay have gone well. We have had a picnic in the park, spent the afternoon at a friend's pool, today was some errands and then the afternoon at Cricket Creek. I sat in a lawn chair and my kids ran wild.

Perfect.

I had to get a last swim in as I have not been in the water for about 2 weeks. The alarm clock went off at 5:30am and my intention was to head to the YWCA for an early morning swim. I get to the pool and the gal informs me that it is $10 for a swim. Huh?? The prices have gone up,,,way up since this winter when it was $3.75!!! I know some of you in bigger centers would not blink at paying 10 bucks for a swim but this is insane...so I left...with no swim.

Now what do I do? (Well, first I went back to bed for a few hours...)

I had read in the city guide that the outdoor pools had a lane swim from 12-1 during the week. I have not swam outdoors since I was a kid and thought it might be kind of fun. Call my nanny (mom) and offer up my kids to take for lunch...I know, I am a sucky...and head for the pool.

As I am parking I see our dear Charlie Browne wandering around the parking lot. After he gives me a hard time about my back door being open...yeah..I was driving with the door half open!!...I ask him why he is walking around the parking lot??!! He says there are too many people and he was not interested in swimming in a crowded pool. I look at him and think, wha??...how can this be? I could not talk him into coming in with me so off he goes to bluer waters...I had exactly 45 minutes to get the meters in and I had no options, so I head into the pool. There wasn't anybody at the desk, and I waited (about 6 seconds, but I still waited!!) I was in a bit of a hurry to get in and get going so actually swam for no charge...oops...if they aren't going to keep better track of that, then not my concern...

I get to the deck and what was happening was it was a free for all in the pool. The lanes were not designated fast-medium-slow, everyone was just swimming up and down with absolutely zero order. I march over to the life guard and ask what the rules are and he just shrugs his shoulders and says "Wherever you can find a place to swim..." WTF!!??

So I jump right in between two girls and nearly take them both out in my first 300 meters. Talk about swimming heads up!! The positive is that it was good practice for my open water swim on Sunday...??

I stop at the end and stop them and say "YOU and YOU...we are swimming in this lane...up the middle and down the rope. Got it?" What a nightmare!! I was a bit miffed at how the guards could not take some responsibility as to who swims where and I overheard 3 others complaining about it!! And THEN there was no pace clock. I was trying to do my intervals using the second hand on the itsy bitsy clock on the wall...I kid you not!! Finally it was just...whatever...and swam about 2500 in total. But it felt really good. Like really really good. I am so ready for this race!!

Let's get to Calgary, already!!!