As an "outsider" to the world of "hardcore" swimming ...
Former Member
I swim a lot and really enjoy it. It's something I've done all of my life, growing up in Southern California, and it's my main form of exercise. I'm good at it, but I do it primarily for health and enjoyment.
I've noticed from lurking around this board for several years that there seems to be a very self-congratulatory, cliquish tone to many threads and posts. It seems like it's often a small group of people who post relentlessly, as if they are engaged in some sort of private conversation where they're trying to outdo each other.
Maybe I'm the only one who feels that way. Maybe that's part and parcel of the world of "hardcore" competitive swimmers. Or maybe it's because there wouldn't be anything else to talk about, unless there weren't a constant focus on who's the "best" at this or that.
A race is something that happens once in a while, whereas a lifetime of swimming lasts, well, a lifetime. Yes, it's great to break a certain time in a certain race, but it's also great to have the self-discpline to keep at a daily swimming program and work on improving one's technique and endurance. Both are valid, and, to my mind, neither is more worthy of praise than the other.
Jim Thornton, if I recall correctly, noted a while ago that there were a lot of people lurking around the board and not really participating. If that is the case, I would propose that may be due to the general off-putting tone of things on here. (I won't give examples at this point, although I could.)
Dramatis Personnae Continued:
Allen Stark, an incredibly decent fellow born with one of those bowl-legged conditions sometimes mistaken for rickets but which has left him with an ability to swim like the most slippery Rana pipiens you ever did see squirt its way through a lily pond!
Poolrat, AKA, Floyd, AKA, Swims with Bees, a noble lad of the first rank and the only one of us with a snowball's chance in hell of getting a casino license one day, at which point his nobility will be as tested as his ability to ignore requests for money from people like his spiritual leader, Jim Thornton
Rtodd, a former runner who, I must say, I do not know the life story details of, and thus will simply make them up here the way I have done with Allen Stark and Floyd; given his slight resemblance to the big-headed Olympic miler great hope, Alan Web, I am pretty sure Rtodd is Alan Web. For more information, google Alan Web, though you might have to try various spellings, Allen Webb, Alain Waeb, etc. till you get the right one.
Knelson, another very likable person I admit I don't Know (pronounced ka-no) very well, in fact, I am not even sure if the K in Knelson is pronounced, as in Ka Nelson, or silent, as in Know. In any event, and based on no real knowledge, or perhaps kanowledge, I am pretty sure he can beat me badly in the pool, even were lactic acid tying up his muscles in kanots.
Ensignada, the person I would most want to administer my final Brompton's Cocktail when the time comes, so soothing and kind and generous of spirit this one is, and I am pretty sure whe wouldn't try to horde my drink for herself.
Dramatis Personnae Continued:
Allen Stark, an incredibly decent fellow born with one of those bowl-legged conditions sometimes mistaken for rickets but which has left him with an ability to swim like the most slippery Rana pipiens you ever did see squirt its way through a lily pond!
Poolrat, AKA, Floyd, AKA, Swims with Bees, a noble lad of the first rank and the only one of us with a snowball's chance in hell of getting a casino license one day, at which point his nobility will be as tested as his ability to ignore requests for money from people like his spiritual leader, Jim Thornton
Rtodd, a former runner who, I must say, I do not know the life story details of, and thus will simply make them up here the way I have done with Allen Stark and Floyd; given his slight resemblance to the big-headed Olympic miler great hope, Alan Web, I am pretty sure Rtodd is Alan Web. For more information, google Alan Web, though you might have to try various spellings, Allen Webb, Alain Waeb, etc. till you get the right one.
Knelson, another very likable person I admit I don't Know (pronounced ka-no) very well, in fact, I am not even sure if the K in Knelson is pronounced, as in Ka Nelson, or silent, as in Know. In any event, and based on no real knowledge, or perhaps kanowledge, I am pretty sure he can beat me badly in the pool, even were lactic acid tying up his muscles in kanots.
Ensignada, the person I would most want to administer my final Brompton's Cocktail when the time comes, so soothing and kind and generous of spirit this one is, and I am pretty sure whe wouldn't try to horde my drink for herself.
