3Feb12 - Ignorance

Kim wasn't feeling good so I was solo today.  I decided to keep it a bit shorter today since I plan on doing a longer set tomorrow and I need to get to school early for an assembly I'm helping run.
Did 500 warmup
300 kick
200 drill
500 swim keeping my pace at exactly .45 a lap.  I kept looking at the clock at each lap and I was right on pace and I felt like I was putting forth VERY little effort to keep this pace.....nice!
500 pull with buoy between knees
250 kick
250 drill
5 x 100 on the 2 min.  I kept trying to hit the wall a bit faster each time
500 pull
I was at 3k now and was planning on stopping but I had so much time so I just played around for another 500 doing some breast, back and breathing stuff.  No real effort, just slow yards to get more in and kill some time.
3500 total

OK, I'm starting to REALLY like swimming in the GSL.  One of my favorite times during the week is arriving at the marina and walking out to the tourist photo platform and looking out over the lake.  When I look at it and imagine some, I can picture myself back at the ocean.  I can smell the salt in the air and look at the waves and just go back to the ocean in my mind.  I love the mountains but I'd take ocean swimming over anything else no questions.  There is just nothing better than the ocean for swimming. 
The GSL is the closest thing we have and the more I swim in it, even for just a quick dip, the more I like it.  I truly try to be a good ambassador for the lake.  I try also to plug the swim that is there every year now.  I am constantly telling anyone that I know who likes to swim to go and try the 1 mile event out. 
OK, this is where it gets annoying.  I tell them to go look at the website and at least LOOK INTO IT....don't have to make a commitment but at least check it out.  I almost always get an ugly look then a voice of repulsion as if I'm asking them to inject themselves with typhoid.  "That's nasty!  That place smells!  OMG the bugs!"  I then ask if they have ever been IN the GSL and they always say "no".  WTF people!  Stop taking your false impressions of the lake and turning into horrible "facts".  I just politely say that the lake may smell a bit driving up but when you are actually AT the lake, it smells fine.  Bugs so far for me have only been a problem in ONE area and only during ONE time of year.
I'm glad that the lake is gaining popularity again for swimmers with the yearly event but I wish people would not look at such a fantastic place with such disgust.  It's starting to bug me.  If they knew as much about it as Josh, me, and especially Gordon about the GSL and how CRITICAL it is to so many forms of life that has global effects, maybe they would stop being so ignorant.
It takes some effort to just smile and say, "Well, it's a fun event and everyone that did it last year had a great time".  If people want to be married to their lap lanes then fine but don't verbally trash something when you haven't even been physically in it to say something about it.

YARRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!