I remember the noodler thread of a long time ago, and I just kinda laughed at the idea of how annoyed some swimmers were with the "noodling". Today, I had a particularly ugly encounter with some noodlers.
I haven't swam since my unfortunate exit, after the 200 IM, at Nationals. Tuesday and Wednesday I had really bad food poisoning that had me laid out the entire time (when I wasn't yakking my guts out!), and on top of it all, I'm one month pregnant with number 4. (Happy about pregnancy, not so much about the other things).
So, my first day back swimming was today at the gym, on this beautiful, sunny 75 degree day. Ahhh. There's a 5 lane 25m pool. Albeit too warm because of the charming noodlers!
I got in, swam an easy 1000, and then the noodler class started. I was in lane 2 as lane 1 is really narrow. I knew that the noodlers get lanes 3-5. I went to push off the wall and a noodler was about 7 meters out right in front of me. Good thing I looked, or she would have had some owies. I stopped and looked at her (she couldn't see the glare in my eyes because I had my goggles on). She just stood there looking at me. A "friend" of hers said, "Do you want to move over?" She asked. I said, "No. I don't." To which she replied, "We get three lanes." I said, "You HAVE three lanes." Apparently, when a lane line isn't in, that counts as one! Long and short of it is I moved over.
It gets better. The "lady" (blue suit) who told me about how many lanes they get started chipping on me as I was swimming/kicking. I held my tongue for awhile and then suggested that she "grow up."
I finished 2,000m which was just right for me, now, and was sitting on the deck, while a guy who was obviously waiting for our ONE lane, got in. I was watching the noodlers noticing that of the 25 of them or so, they were all much older ladies or younger, MUCH heavier "ladies". I'm guessing over 300 pounds, which might account for their ill temper. Blue suit was probably pushing 350. As I was sitting their I saw her turn around, look right at me, and clear as day, say to her friend, "The b!t@h got out!" I couldn't believe my ears, was she kidding me?!
I walked over to her and from the side said, "Do you have a problem with me?" She said, "No. Why?" And I said, "I have a problem being called a b!t#h for no good reason." She didn't answer again, but her friend said, "She didn't say that." I told her that I clearly heard her. She said, "She doesn't even use words like that. She said, 'You got out.' " (Oh, they sound so similar! Plus it doesn't even make sense, she wasn't talking to me! Anyway...)
I said again, "If you have a problem I think you should talk to me." She still didn't answer. Her friend said, "If you have a problem, maybe you should go to the front desk." I said, "I'd rather work it out with you." So, I hadn't thought of going to the front desk, but it sounded good.
The manager came over and I pointed them out and he said he'd give me a call... we'll see.
I couldn't believe the rudeness. I'm sure not all noodlers are that rude, but she was over the top.
Karen - Congratulations on Mini-Duggan #4!!!
For the last month or so, I've been swimming at the local YMCA. Although we've had some issues with some slower people entering our lane at times, I can only think of two Karen-esque incidents.
The first was with me. Some ~8yo kid was standing in my lane about 7M out from the wall - I didn't see him at all. I pushed off for a 100 free fast, head tucked, and was just about ready to do a SDK, when WHAM! My hands dug into his side pretty good. I had just told the same kid to be careful about his ball going into our lane. After asking if he was ok, he told his friend he didn't want to play anymore. I obviously hit him pretty hard. I did tell him I warned him to be careful, which I thought was going to get some angry mommage.
The second incident happened mid-workout when a woman was getting ready to join us. Mollie informed the woman, "We're doing an interval-based workout, just to let you know." Some snapping back occurred and she jumped in anyways.
To the point of the second incident, any time we had a 3rd swimmer try to join us, we'd let them know the same thing as a common courtesy. Other than that woman, we didn't have any 350lb angry water buffalo like Karen. We actually had a few different people legitimately join us in our workouts, which was nice.
I've also done a fair share of brownnosing with the people there too, with a "Good afternoon, how are you?" to a good number of people I see hanging out at the wall. If they were mad about excess waves or my fly, well, at least they can say I am a nice guy, right?
Karen - Congratulations on Mini-Duggan #4!!!
For the last month or so, I've been swimming at the local YMCA. Although we've had some issues with some slower people entering our lane at times, I can only think of two Karen-esque incidents.
The first was with me. Some ~8yo kid was standing in my lane about 7M out from the wall - I didn't see him at all. I pushed off for a 100 free fast, head tucked, and was just about ready to do a SDK, when WHAM! My hands dug into his side pretty good. I had just told the same kid to be careful about his ball going into our lane. After asking if he was ok, he told his friend he didn't want to play anymore. I obviously hit him pretty hard. I did tell him I warned him to be careful, which I thought was going to get some angry mommage.
The second incident happened mid-workout when a woman was getting ready to join us. Mollie informed the woman, "We're doing an interval-based workout, just to let you know." Some snapping back occurred and she jumped in anyways.
To the point of the second incident, any time we had a 3rd swimmer try to join us, we'd let them know the same thing as a common courtesy. Other than that woman, we didn't have any 350lb angry water buffalo like Karen. We actually had a few different people legitimately join us in our workouts, which was nice.
I've also done a fair share of brownnosing with the people there too, with a "Good afternoon, how are you?" to a good number of people I see hanging out at the wall. If they were mad about excess waves or my fly, well, at least they can say I am a nice guy, right?
