<<So I sit down next to him tonight and he asks me what I did over the weekend.
I reply "My boyfriend came to visit me from Ottawa"
Boy: "Oh...I kind of thought we had something going on..." he sits there for a momment staring at the deck then turns to me and says "does this mean you're not a virgin?" >>

OK,thats just weird.

Oh that's funny!

How did you reply ;-)

As for the coffee at the end of the pool, a few people bring travel mugs to our Masters group. I'm assuming it's coffee or tea inside.

What was also surprising about the coffee was that it was in an open paper cup that could have easily been spilled (the health club where the pool is has a courtesy coffee counter by the front desk). I used to go to a pool at a local Y that wouldn't let you have anything other than a bottle of water on the deck, but the lifeguard here was sitting right by the lane and had to have seen it.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

Short slightly chubby 11/12 ish little girl. Cranks out a relatively impressive 500...in the outdoor heated pool when the air temperature was 45 degrees. (I know it was a 500 b/c her dad asked her if she wanted to do another 500)

Oh yeah, her dad had a huge beer belly, but he was a pretty decent swimmer.

Hmmm....must be a cyclist.

New species sighted on Saturday..."I'm just gonna get in your lane and swim without talking to you Guy"...I see this young dude dicking around with his goggles near my lane at the deep end...I figure he wants to share, no big deal. As I make the turn, I see he's already in the water on the other side of the lane...again, no big deal, I figure I'll talk to him down there and figure out what he wants to do. As I reach the midway mark, whoosh, he goes right past me. Hmmm, that was nice...couldn't even be bothered with a "do you mind sharing the lane"....as I reach the deep end and turn around, he's still swimming, and I've got to guess what he's gonna do next...is he gonna try and circle swim, or is he going to stay on that side? I guess he's going to stay over there, since that's what 99% of the folks around here do if there's only two people in the lane (plus I think that's the rule posted somewhere...2 people to a lane, you split, 3+ you circle swim), so I head back on the other side. Sure enough, half-way down....whammo! Big collision...I stand up, fairly annoyed, and he....keeps going! Doesn't even bother to say anything. So, now that I know we are circle swimming, start following him. Eventually, he stops, since I am catching him, and I (in a nice way) tell him that its just common courtesy to let the other guy know what the plan is. He was quite sheepish about it, so I couldn't really stay annoyed with him. This is the second time this has happened to me at this pool...is it really that hard to let somebody know you are going to getting into the lane? Its really not a big deal, but I'm not a big fan of whacking skulls together, either.

Spot

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

I ran into a new one for me yesterday, old guy with huge flippers and webbed gloves that is pacing in front of the locker room door [wearing the flippers] waiting for the door to the pool to open at 6 am, does a furious 100 in a stroke that can only be described as a brest stroke on his back and then leaves...

Last week at Masters practice a guy in my lane told me he hopes we're not doing any backstroke because "he has a boner"

Ewwwww!!!! Why on earth would someone share that info???

Spot

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

I pitied all of you guys until late last week - swam at a time that's unusual for me, and was the only guy in the shower rooms (there are two large shower bays) when I get out. Take a shower by the wall and am lathering up when this guy who looks like a cross between Charles Manson and the Unabomber comes in, surveys the fifteen empty showers - and selects the one right next to me. I try to accelerate my shower, but moved when he reached across me to lean on the wall.

Just too creepy.

Yuck. I'm lucky...at the YMCA I go to we have individual shower stalls...very nice. What does crack me up, though, is why, when there a gazillion lockers to choose from, someone has to pick the one right next to yours!

Spot

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

At my YMCA we have alot of the people listed in this post. One of my favorites is "tubby older guy with a wetsuit." He is there everyday- in his wetsuit, with paddles, kickboards- the whole host of pool toys. He kicks probably 300m in the course of an hour with a few backstrokes and goes home. He seems to always meet me in the shower when I get there or getting in the pool at the same time and makes some comment about "we'll a good thousand meters should get me warmed up." or "got me another 500 to do." I have never seen him do more than 50 or 100 meters freestyle. He kicks like a madman, though. Oh, and he must have 15 different swimsuits, and occasionally finds someone to tell which are "faster."

My actual favorite, though, is muscley-old-guy who does a crap load of ridiculously slow breaststroke laps in his underwear. Cotton, nonetheless. The pool people never say anything. Then he dries 'em off in the swimsuit dryer, puts 'em back on and goes home. Occasionally he will curse out a kid in the locker room that he feels is being too loud or something.

That is too funny! And it actually made me wonder - how sanitary are those swimsuit dryer things? I use it all the time and try not to think about it because I don't want a wet wadded up swimsuit in my bag all day. I did see once in Florida what looked like an older woman doing her laundry in one of those things, though...

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Bri Gaal
One Step Beyond
http://www.osbmultisport.com

A guy I've seen lately at my pool wears ultra long flippers, a scuba mask and snorkel. He swims very slowly and the end of the lane, he turns without taking his head out of the water. Now that I think about it, I guess it would be hard to do otherwise. However, you could never share a lane with him because he takes up the whole lane as he turns.

Another type that I see alot, probably already mentioned here, are the old guys that do a kind of slow porpoise thing.. they come up for air, then dive to the bottom of the pool, look around for a bit then surface again. There are at least two old guys that do this. What's that about?

At the pool I use to go to we had all kinds of wack-a-doos.

My most memorable encounter:
"Rotund woman with greasy hands and zoomers" This woman is pretty portly. Not huge but big enough that she makes some decent waves and a nice undertow as she flounders around in the pool. Her swimming aparatus of choice, Red Zoomers and greasy palms. Now, I woudn't mind if she used them right and I proably would have never noticed her but, she only does breaststroke kick with freestyle arm strokes? What the He!! is wrong with people? Breastroke kick with zoomers has to tear your knees up something awful. This same woman asks me one day if she could take a look at my paddles. I tell her no problem but I don't recommend doing breaststroke kick with the fins on and swimming with the paddles freestyle. Sure, sure, she says to me. I know what I'm doing. Sure enough this freak takes off and makes it about 10 yards. Does some nasty A$$ in the air pivot turn and starts heading back to the wall. She takes them off and hands them to me. Here you go she says. I really like them, they balance me out. I almost died. I go to put the paddles on and they are covered in grease. Needless to say I wound up with a new set of paddles the next day and finally don't swim there anymore.

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Team Zoot Northeast

OTOH there are days like...
I was doing 50 sprint repeats and smacked knuckles with the cute girl in the lane next to me. Later, we got out around the same time and I apologized to her. She smiled at me and said, "Well, it can't be my fault because I have perfect form." And I admired that form as she sauntered off the pool deck.

OTOH on another day, a gal who's son was on the same soccer team as my son last year thinks that's enough of a connection to strike up a conversation with me. I'm there to swim, but I try to be nice and while she's yapping, I'm trying to think up some good (usually funny) exit line to precede me pushing off the wall and start a straight thousand rather than the 10x100s I planned to do just because I know she'll engage me in more conversation between intervals. (Apologies for the run-on sentence.)

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Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.

I think she swims at my pool. I saw a lady lubing up with vasoline around her feet and ankles so that the zoomers don't rub. icky!

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

this has GOT to be the funniest post yet- I recently started swim wkouts at the city pool cause it's closer than the Univ. pool- bad move... I have encountered ALL of the above swimmers-the one that takes the cake though is some formulation of underwater guy/comes up and goes nowhere freestyle by grabbing at the air/water and NOT breathing- then he takes a breath, dives and wiggles around on the bottom of the pool- I will NEVER swim in the lane next to him again- he got out and proceeded to shadowbox w/the backboard and then took his towel like a baby and rocked it around a bit-he's not 100% "all there"

OR, the guy who would swim and then hang on the rope looking into my lane JUST as I was coming in for a flip turn- I had to flip extra fast as I imagined what he was leaning over the line gazing at :(- he did this every 50- so I accelerated into the wall and did some extra splashing- fine, I'm the only fit 130lb female in the pool so cheap thrill

course, if I got the University pool everyone is trying to outdo the person next to them

Which pool? That ugly pool off mesa hills?

Today I was "Holy-shit,-who-are-YOU?-guy"

I swim in the local college pool 4-5 times a week for over a year now, and today was the FIRST day that there was more than one other person swimming laps. Today there were FOUR of us. Who are these intruders?!??! :)

Did she have hairy feet and ankles? Might be the same woman...

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Team Zoot Northeast

Yeah, after New Years there were a bunch of new folks in the pool, although they have thankfully pretty much gone now. My favorites were "2 Guys Who Talked Way More Than They Swam"...these guys would be in the pool when I got there, I would swim for 45-50 minutes, and they would still be there when I left. They would each swim a couple laps, then talk for 5 minutes, repeat, over and over. I can't for the life of me figure out what they thought they were getting out of that. They have since disappeared.

Spot

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

Francois, I thought that might be you- it's me, Gretchen and yes, the ugly pool off Mesa Hills- I'm trying to justify going back to UTEP- I need Brian's help and Carlson's coaching when I can get it! I'm back at racing again this year; Tanya can tell ya :)

I now have a new category--"Guys Who Are Older Than Me, But Make Me Look Like a Crappy Swimmer."

Guy One--Found out he had a full ride swimming scholarship at THE University of Miami. He was seriously pissed a couple of years ago when he went to USMS Nationals and only came in second.

Guy Two--Found out he swam at the USAFA and was World Champion in Modern Pentathlon in 1979, was on the US Olympic Team in Pentathlon three times (won the 200 free event in at least one olympic pentathlon).

Now, I'm not a bad swimmer, mind you. Top Ten in Colorado in HS, All Conference and qualified for Nationals (Div. II) in college, have been first out of the water in my wave in numerous tris, but these guys make me look sick

Not sure if he's been mentioned yet, but I had a frustrating morning with...

The Blocker

This guy is clearly the slowest in the lane. He takes a break every 25 or 50 meters and lurks there.... until you get within 5 meters of the wall. Then he pushes off and proceeds to swim slowly and erratically in the middle of the lane. Not sure the point here, as he ends up getting passed within the first 10 meters. When he's really feeling frisky he speeds up and tries to pace you as you are passing. No lie, this was repeated at least 5 times during each of my 3 x 1000 this morning- in LCM.

Jodi