During these Covid times, swimming indoors is challenging at best. Gyms were shut for ages, and only recently opened with significant restrictions. My gym, which is through my husband’s work, has chosen not to open yet. Yikes. And of course this includes their pool. Double yikes! So I have had a month of panic, trying to figure out where and how I could swim. I’ll explain the logistics, and then the origin of the panic. Schools have also closed their pools to the public, which leaves 2 pools in my tiny town. The Ymca has a pool, but you have to be a member. They are open for lap swim from 7-9 am and 4-6 pm. You have to call and reserve a lane 48 hours in advance. No sharing lanes. Swim time is 45 minutes to allow for transition. With my work schedule and membership costing $50/month, that nixed that pretty quickly. The boys and girls club was option 2. They are open longer hours, but only in the morning, starting at 7. They cost $60 for SIX MONTHS! The price is right, but the timing is bad. Hence the panic.

Why? One might ask. Just do other workouts, what’s your damage? Or some southerners might ask why I need to pool swim at all? The lake had worked well so far? I live in Western New York, where it is winter 6 months of the year. Right now the lake is about 50-55 degrees on a warm day, and the air temp is hanging in the 40’s. I have no desire to experience hypothermia. I also started this year barely being able to swim a lap without getting out of breath, and I’ve always felt my swimming is where I have the least experience. I have built myself up to swimming 1/2 mile continuously, and that took an insane amount of work. I am terrified of losing all of that, and starting all over next year.

Then someone mentioned a gym that’s about 20 miles north of me, whose pool recently reopened. Their website was not the best, with conflicting schedules and fees, but they did seem to be open all evenings and possibly Saturday mornings. My hopes raised against my better judgement, and I called them. Indeed, they were open, their pool was open, and it was open on Saturdays! They had a separate pool membership that was $130 for six months; a little more than free, which was my spoiled, Pre-Covid plan, but you have to adapt or die . Same reservation system. I hemmed and hawed. I discussed it with my husband. I hemmed some more. Then I went for it.

Today was my first swim and it was glorious. I woke up at 6:30 for my 7:45 reservation. I am NOT a morning person and I had eaten/drank too much last night, so this was a struggle. I drove the 30 minutes there and almost fell asleep in the csr. The pre-dawn navy grey haze made everything surreal, and I felt myself fading into slumber only to jerk myself back to focus on driving. Finally I got into the pool, which felt shockingly cool, and I started swimming. With each rhythmic stroke, everything faded away. The fight I had with my husband last week? Gone. My kids’ struggle with hybrid school? Gone My work stress? Gone. Stroke stroke stroke breathe. Focus, head down, breathe to the side. Bring your legs up. Arms move next to your body. Stay in your lane, here comes the edge, and turn. It was meditation, just me and the pool. No waves in my face, no current to fight, no weeds strangling me, no lake monster.

I am so grateful that I am young and healthy and able to afford resources like pool memberships. I am thankful beyond measure that I found a way to swim during the impending COVID winter. Hopefully swimming will continue to bring me the peace and joy of today, and I will emerge from the winter stronger than ever.