All alone at the pool
Yesterday my training called for a one hour swim with my local masters group but a scheduling conflict meant I had to get my swim in at some other point in the day.
Here in NH it’s not fall yet but the hot days of summer have passed for the most part and many of the summer camps have ended. Yesterday was comfortable, right around 70 degrees and a little overcast with a breeze making it feel a little colder.
The local outdoor pool had lanes available from 4 - 7:30 so I planned on arriving around 4:30, get my hour in and get to my evening commitment. As I pulled up to the parking lot I saw a few less cars than I normally see which didn’t seem strange with the camps over and some schools already back in session. What did seem strange is that when I got within sight of the pool there was no one in it. There were four lifeguards chatting on the side but no one in the pool?
As I walked up to the gate I figured that I would be told of some chemical imbalance or mechanical problem which is why no one was there. Not the case though. There was just no one there. I had never experienced this before, there was always at least one or two people either doing laps or kids playing.
The point of this entry which has gone one way too long is that the experience made me realize what triathlon has done for me in terms of the discipline I have developed over the past several years. If most people were sitting at home and looked outside at the thermometer and checked out the skies I can see that most probably would not have said “let’s go and hang out at the pool for the afternoon”. It had more of a feeling like leaves would start to be falling soon and one would start to dig out the fall clothing. However, I didn’t give my pool visit a second thought. It was Thursday, I needed to swim so I did, no questions asked.
I also stood in the rain for 8 hours last Sunday at the Timberman 70.3 race volunteering so maybe my mental reasoning isn’t a good measure to use….