Got nowhwere to (water) run

Once the snow covers the trails runners are forced to hit the roads.  Even though roads are built for cars 99% of drivers have the good sense to move their steering wheel one inch to make room for a runner because they know there is plenty of room.  That other small percent of drivers feel that the road is rightfully theirs, they don’t want to share it.  To make their point they don’t budge and they honk their horn.

It seems as though there are a few swimmers who like to honk their horns too.  At McMaster there are a few recreational swimmers who don’t want to share their swimming lane with people going slower (ie water runners).  Instead of honking they complain to staff about having to manuever around water runners who are moving slowly. 

The way the lanes work at McMaster is that all the traffic flows up the middle and back down either side in each of the slow, medium and fast lane (a six lane pool split into three wide lanes).  If one lane is enough room for traffic to move up the pool than one lane is certainly enough to move the same people down the pool.  That conveniently leaves the other lane for water runners to go back and forth.  99% of the swimmers realise this and are happy to share.  A few however make it a point by coming down the same side as the water runners. 

These selfish swimmers have complained to the pool staff to have water runners banned on Tuesday and Thursday when the pool runs the ‘long course’ (see pic above).  We were told on Thursday so I wrote an email describing a simple solution so that everyone can share the pool.  I didn’t get any response to my suggestion. 

On Tuesday during recreational swim we (there were five water runners, two more came and were denied) were asked to leave the pool.  We complied and had a discussion on the deck to come up with a resolution so I could continue to train.  As pissed as I was that I had to abandon my training I kept my cool so as not to burn any bridges, although I’m sure I still annoyed the aquatics manager with my persistence in finding a solution.   The aquatics manager even agreed that the rule was absurd however, they weren’t budging on their decision.  It seems as though one of the selfish swimmers is some sort of big shot at McMaster (who may or may not donate large sums of money) and the decision to ban water running was going to stick.

The funny thing is that during our conversation on the deck there were between zero and four patrons in the deep end at any time, plenty of room for more people to enjoy the pool (or to train, pool running isn’t exactly enjoyable). 

While there are a number of solutions to a simple problem the one they came up with is to open the pool for an extra hour for pool runners.  They will charge the varsity track team and Quest for Gold $30/hour for us to train.  Which is fine with me right now but completely ridiculous.  When I was injured last week I was in the pool for at least 1hr 45min each day.  Now that I’m running more miles an hour will be sufficient for my needs.

I also just received an email saying that if I want to water run for longer I can pay $170/hour to have the pool.  That’s right $170/hour!  I would be embarrassed if I worked at McMaster and was a ‘supporter’ of the Pan-Am games and the athletes.

I wish I could send all the complaining swimmers back to Kindergarten where they could learn the valuable lesson of sharing.