Flashes of Panic

My cleverly-arranged training-location setup collapsed this week. The College¹ is on spring break this week, and due to the resulting shortage of lifeguards, the pool is closed. My fallback, the Amherst Community Aquatics Center, has even funkier hours than Pratt Pool². I walked over on Tuesday night, but they appeared to be closed due to snow. Last night I didn’t have the energy to do the “are they or aren’t they” dance, so I slept instead. Today and Friday, I’ve got other things to do.

I think this is tapering a bit more than intended.

What I miss is being able to stop, on the way home from work, at Puffer’s Pond or the like, and just jump in. Sure, no lane lines and you can’t see the bottom of the pool, but it’s not closed for team practice, either.

Years ago, when I stayed in town between my junior and senior years, I used to do Saturday morning runs from Puffer’s Pond with a teammate. We’d park at the pond and run north several miles on the Robert Frost Trail, come back, and run straight in to the pond (which hadn’t, by that time of day, filled with summer swimmers.) It made an afternoon at the Dickinson Homestead downright tolerable.

OK, I’ve got some spring fever going.

1. A. dislikes this shorthand, but to me, “The College” is Amherst College, “The University” is UMass Amherst. What, there are other colleges nearby?

2. If you don’t know the name of a structure at the College, it’s safest to call it “Pratt.” Everything else is; in fact, they’re on track to have two different dorms named “Pratt” in a few years.