33659 Day 143

old_guys

swimming runs in my family. i've never done it competitively but when i was in college i swam laps, mostly during my junior and senior years before i hurt my shoulder, for exercise. as an aside, i did so many more active things in college: lots of soccer and ultimate frisbee, weight lifting, racquetball, basketball, volleyball, etc. not so much anymore.

which is why i am trying to make 2010 the "year i got back in the pool." second aside: umass allows clergy a free community pass to their athletic facilities, which i discovered thanks to my industrious wife. time to take full advantage of that!

anyway, when i swam in college there was this group of old guys (60+ years old) who swam at the same time as i did. they swam very, very slow laps, and then retired to the locker room where they would sit around naked and complain about politics and the giants and whatever else was going on in the world at the time. not to brag or anything, but i was in way better shape than them (it's simple age physics: 21 year olds have "better" bodies than 61 year olds). nonetheless, i always felt very self-conscious and would often take a locker as far away from them as possible.

yet, i was strangely attracted to this subculture. here were guys who were totally comfortable around each other, probably due to the fact that they had shared this routine for about 25 years. i admired that...and still do.

so far, if this subculture also exists at umass, i have not found it. in fact, the sample size is small at this point, but it appears that i am actually the oldest person using the pool between the hours of 10 am and 12 pm.

perhaps it is part of my calling to initiate this tradition at the clark athletic center =)