Since June, I’ve had the opportunity to swim in an outdoor 50 meter pool on a daily basis. No, I don’t go to the pool every day, but 2 or 3 times a week, you’d have been able to find me and a few other lap swimmers at this outdoor pool in Palos.On some mornings, it was humid and sticky and the cool pool water felt refreshing. I think we were kicked out of the pool 3 times over the course of the summer because of thunder and/or lightening. Yesterday, the combination of the warm water and chilly air temperature caused a constant steam.
An outdoor pool gives you a great change of scenery from the indoor flourescent lights to the bright morning sunshine. You get to change the stale, chlorine-filled air to fresh summer breezes. The fact that this pool is 50 meters vs. the standard 25 yards just makes it better for long distance swimming.
The pool water was crystal clear throughout the summer. However, keeping the bottom of the pool clean of debris was a challenge for the lifeguards. I’ve seen numerous items down at the bottom: dirt, coins, the rubber gasket from a goggle, diving rings, leaves, bandaids, hairbands and something that looked like a dryer sheet. But all of that stuff stayed on the bottom so it really didn’t bother me. In fact, it gave me something more to look at than the solid black line I was following down the pool.
So now it’s over and we say goodbye to another season at the outdoor pool. They have threatened to close this pool down for a few years now, so I can only hope it will be open again next year. I am dreading going to my next swim indoors. Memorial Day 2009 seems so far away….
