Swimming Upstream, Slowly

My sister Jennifer and I grew up with a fabulous pool in our backyard, one with a diving board, a slide and a bank of water fountains that can only be compared to an Esther Williams movie. I spent many a summer swimming laps, practicing dives, or just floating on my back watching the clouds. I always loved everything about pool water, from the sharp chlorine smell to the sound of underwater silence. I even love the feeling of staying in too long, fingers and toes pruning from the water. 

This summer, encouraged by my friend Al, I joined the Santa Monica College pool. Actually, there are two pools, 'splash' and 'deep water'. Both are Olympic sized and relatively warm. We decided we were going to do laps so armed with my Target bikini and a towel, we signed up in late May and have been going twice a week ever since.

It's only mid-June, but already I laugh at my May naivete - a bikini and a towel? Where were my flip-flops? My goggles? My swim cap? How about shampoo? Lotion? A hairdryer? I'm still in the market for a one-piece suit. I seem to be the only one there in a striped two-piece.

You should see the long, lean Michael Phelps-esque bodies that glide along the water. There are also an inordinate number of pregnant women - I mean REALLY pregnant. They say it's the only exercise they can tolerate at this late stage. There are teams of people practicing for triathalons on one end, water aerobics classes on the other, and then lane after lane of people swimming laps, the breaststroke, butterfly, crawl, backstroke, etc.

Sure it's a little crowded and yes sometimes there are particles of...dirt? gunk? stuff? floating in the water, but for me it is worth it. At two dollars a swim I get a good workout, some amazing people watching and that indescribable endorphin high. I sure miss that bank of water fountains from the pool on Barrington, but the pool(s) on Pico isn't half bad.