Thursday, October 18, 2007

Just When I'd Given Up... A Glimmer of Hope

My gym has a sister facility in the next town over (not the bigger town to the south with the snooty expensive gym, a smaller town to the west I almost never have reason to visit). I never bothered to check it out - it's farther away and besides, I heard from multiple people it did not have a pool.

And because it's a sister facility with the same set-up - small and inside an apartment complex, I assumed they were also shutting down and kicking everyone out because they've always shared management and staff.

But today I was informed otherwise on both counts, by none other than the outgoing manager of my current gym, who has worked for these gyms for 12 years. I trust her information over the random reports of other members.

It turns out only the apartment complex in MY town went condo and shut down the gym - the apartment complex in the next town over is still apartments, and the gym will remain open.

She warned me "it's not the same." Which scares me, because how much worse can it get?! My current pool is 44 feet long and requires 60 laps/mile. Reports differ - some people say it's just the depth that's different, some people say the pool overall is smaller.

Regardless. It's only 20 minutes away (as opposed to 30 for the place I can't afford or 35-40 for the place that's booked with 4 swim teams).

They're a small, older facility in a not-so-central location, and they're losing members hand over fist to the shiny new strip mall gyms. Their solution is to chop the monthly dues in half!

That means I can afford the additional cost of taking yoga elsewhere!

So. It's not a sure thing yet and it's still mighty inconvenient, but after all this frustration it sounds promising. They're even waiving the join fee for anyone coming from my gym. I'm going to pay them a visit in the next few weeks to see just how "not the same" the pool is, but if it's water and it's enclosed in 4 walls, I don't see how I won't just take it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds promising!!!

LBTEPA said...

fingers crossed for you

Melissa said...

Sounds good. Keep us posted!! Have you called the Y yourself? Ours has tons of swim teams, but they always have a couple swim lanes available. Just a thought.

Kim Herring said...

Sounds like you might have a good option - I don't know what I'd do without my gym - I still don't like training in the cold winter snow and ice and the gym is a good alternative for those really nasty days - and for swimming it's the only option now that the water is in the 50's.....brrr!

Sixteen Chickens said...

Yay!! Now if only that gym has childcare!

While I was in the pool this morning I was thinking about you and wondering what I would do if faced with a similar situation. I wasn't sure what I would do but as I swam I considered myself fortunate.

Mojo said...

Glad you found a pool. If it doesn't turn out to be the best lap swimming pool, maybe it will be a place you can teach the baby to swim. :)

Dances with Corgis said...

Gah, gym logistics... such a pita. Hopefully this one works out.

Unknown said...

hope that works out for you!!