Swimming Compared to Running

Let me get this out first:

#1: I really, really, really want to become a good swimmer.
#2: I really, really, really want swimming to be an athletic activity of mine on an equal status as running.

and...

#3: I really, really, really am starting to see how this may not be at all feasible.

It all comes down to the sad fact that I am neither a dolphin nor a fish, so alas, I must create (or use some other party's creation of) an artificial environment in which I can temporarily depart from my naturally evolved tendencies as a land animal and "take the plunge'. If you're already lost, that just simply means that, to swim, I need first to find a pool to swim in!

Well, it just so happens that I already am a member in a pool-bearing YMCA, conveniently only a mile from my home. The only problem is that a lot of other folks like my YMCA's pool and want to use it, and not just for swimming laps. We have various swim teams, swimming classes, scuba diving classes, water aerobics, fitness groups, and of course, individual members in increasing numbers as the temperatures warm and the thought of a pool excursion becomes more and more attractive. And then there are the lap-swimmers, most of whom I am totally in awe regarding their ability to "do it", i.e. go back and forth across the 25-meter lanes without pausing, over and over again, no matter their age or apparent level of fitness. In spite of my near-adulation of these seasoned swimmers, they do represent a problem in that whenever I want to go swimming, I have to work around them.

Now let's look at running. Presuming that I am able to run, I can freaking run anywhere I want to, due to that now-fortunate fact that I am a land animal! And there is no premium on space with running: I can run even if there is a horde of runners going down the street! And there is no time limit either; I don't have to adjust my schedule to the select hours that the street is open, as is the case with the swimming pool.

I can run indoors at the YMCA on one of their treadmills, I can run down the streets of my neighborhood, I can run on a nearby track, I can run in my back yard, I can run through my house, ... hell, I can even just run in place! But if I want to swim, then I have to find somewhere to do that. And that ain't always so easy!

I have to hand it to my local YMCA: they have been good to swimmers, keeping their pool open throughout the winter as they have done. But they only have so much room in the pool, and there is already too much demand for access to it. I can only see this problem worsening as the season progresses through spring and into summer. There are other pools in Gainesville: one in the northeast section and the Westside Park pool, which for reasons only they know won't open this year until next month. So as it stands now, it is a hit-or-miss proposition whenever I prepare to go swimming as to whether I will actually have an available lane to swim in when I get there.

But not with running. I can just step outside my front door and go tearing down the road. It doesn't matter what else is going on: if it's storming outside I can go to that same YMCA and run on one of their many available treadmills...or as I said before I could even just run in place in my living room... while watching TV! Try swimming at home (without a swimming pool). Sorry, but the bathtub just doesn't cut it!

So availability really drastically separates swimming from running for me, even in a generally warm-weather state like Florida. There is also another difference between the two forms of physical activity...

When I have just finished a hot, sweaty, and tiring run, I feel like taking a shower, for sure. But just the same, the act of running makes me feel like I have somehow cleansed my body of toxins. But after a session in the pool swimming, I have the opposite feeling: I feel contaminated by the chlorine and god-knows-what-else was in the pool and--quick, get me into the shower and wash it all off!