Swimming at the Florida Pool
Monday I went swimming at the Florida Pool for the first time. It was something else. I hadn’t really been swimming in years, and here I was bumbling around the pool getting ready to swim some laps to rehabilitate my knee.
I had a good half dozen or so reservations about doing this for the first time. I ended up talking to three different friends in an effort to procrastinate on going to the pool. I was worried about the akwardness that sometimes comes with not knowing my bearings and general ignorance of pretty much every situation that I could conjure up.
So, I decided that I’d just ask a lot of questions, which seemed like it would be a good plan, but the lifegaurds I talked to were really big into short sentences that provided only one clue at a time. That was cool. I just went up and asked them question after question until I knew what I was supposed to do. This happened five times.
My questions —
‘Hi! I’ve never been here before. What do I need to do?’
“Show me your Gator-1 and sign in.”
‘OK, uhm… where should I change?’
“In the locker room.”
{There are eight different doors surrounding the pool — that I can see at this point}
‘Right, which door is that?’
“Just go down there, it’s to your right.”
{Five doors to my right. Three are marked. Lifeguards Only. Men. Women.}
{I decide to check out the Men door. I had to use the restroom anyway. There was a shower, a bench, some hooks, a sink, a urinal, and a disabled-friendly toilet}
‘Which one is the lockher room?’
“The bathroom.”
‘Oh. Well, where are the lockers?’
“No lockers.”
‘Where do you want me to put my stuff?’
“Where ever you want is cool.”
{I go and change. When I come out every lane is full.}
‘All the lanes are full. Do I just wait until one opens up or…?’
“No. Go on in.”
{David Hasselhoff was probably much more talkative than this, right?} {He noticed my hesitation and colunteers information!}
“Usually they just try their best to avoid each other.”
So, I walk around the pool — the long way. I didn’t realize that there was no “shallow end” in this pool. I look at the situation down by me feet and realize that I should probably just hop into the pool. I do. It’s nice and warm… sweeet!
I don’t stretch. I don’t really think much anymore either. I just decide to swim a lap.
I get back and I am burning. I decide to talk to my neighbor who is also standing in the less deep end. I learn a lot from this guy. His name is Ben. He is a triathelete. He too hurt his knee. Down and back is two laps NOT one. The length of the pool is 50 yards. He planned on swimming 750 yards today, but he doesn’t in the end.
I didn’t have any plans really. I didn’t realize it would be so hard to swim. I try for another lap. My third and fourth. They kill me. I end up doing the side-stroke back to the place where I can stand and breathe. I am not used to this madness where I have to think before I suck wind — else suck in heavily chlorinated water. I realized that the water burns your throat pretty badly — after everything else stopped burning.
I was standing there in five foot land sucking in air. Completely dizzy and dehydrated. I finally read the sign with the pool rules on it. I was supposed to shower before getting in, eh? Thanks for letting me in on that lifeguard! Oh? Drink lots of water? I wished that they had this sign visable from the front.
Burning finally stopped. Stretching helps. Talking to Ben helps. I try to say funny things, but that doesn’t work so well for me. I must have been really dumb, because things started feeling really good while I was standing there and I felt that it meant that I should try another pair.
OK… turning at the half-way point… turning is hard. Stopping at five and a half feet is cool. I stretch some more. Wait to tell Ben that I am leaving and get out of the pool.
So do three other guys… Not exactly desirable situation here, but life goes on.
I’m totally out of it all the way back to my car. By the time I am driving I feel like I’m about to fall asleep because I am so beat. I guess runner’s high isn’t limited to runners.
I hate that I feel that I have to shower before I go to bed because of the cholrine smell. I don’t shower right away though, because I don’t want to sleep in the shower for an hour and waste all that water.
yawn… It’s late. This is pretty long, drawn-out, and overly detailed.
Tomorrow I am going to go swimming again. Yeah… every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is the plan. I should probably be sleeping by now though… I wish my tiredness would come through on the blog in some way other than a weird mix of complete brevity AND its absense.
Posted by David under Uncategorized |