Swim #3: Sheraton Hotel, Fort Lauderdale

Monday, April 19, 2010.  Most hotel pools are tiny, overchlorinated, and indoors.  But at the Sheraton Hotel in Fort Lauderdale -- now THIS is a pool.  This is a photo from their website: http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=664  

The pool is huge, outdoors, and right on the beach.  I got up early in the morning - we were there for just one night and had a flight to catch - but I had a delightful swim.  I have a feeling that the pool is full of children during the height of the day, and the bar implies a pool full of young partyers through the evening, but at 7 am, I was in my own little heaven.  Two thumbs up!

Swim #2: Eastpointe Country Club

April, 2010:  Remember the rules -- I may have had many swims between #1 and #2, but they only count when the location is different! 

Swim #2 is at Eastpointe Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.  This is a sad week, as we close my in-laws' house for good.  We've spent a week here every year since before Benjamin was born, and the memories are endless.   This photo is from one of those trips.

Mornings at Eastpointe were occupied with lap swims and visits to the health club, and afternoons filled with pool activities: races, diving for stones, handstand competitions, and just lying in the sun.  I would often complain that the pool was too warm for lap swimming - but on this, our last visit, oddly, the heater was broken and the temperature was just right.

Swim #1: Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center

It has begun!  Swim #1 had to be here, where I swim several times a week.  I would call this my "home field" -- the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center (lsjcc.org) in Newton, MA.  The pool at the JCC always has a diverse cast of characters swimming, which is part of what I like about it.  There are preschoolers in the free-swim area, elderly folks in the slow lane, and plenty of good lap lanes in between.  And on days when I don't feel like swimming, the running track, cardio area, and weight room beckon.

My normal swim here is 48 lengths, and takes roughly a half-hour.  I'm not sure why it's 48 and not 45 or 50.....I think when I started really swimming for exercise, I increased in multiples of four.  48 has stuck around for about 20 years now, and feels like the right number.  Numbers one through 30 are always crawl;  I work in some back crawl and breast stroke during the remaining 18. 

What is 50 Swims?

This is me, Cathy.  I love to swim.  Indoors, outdoors, pools, natural water, anywhere, and as often as possible.  I have often said that swimming is what keeps me out of a padded cell -- or, as a friend once said as we jumped in the water together, "Instant good mood!"   As I approach my 50th birthday, staying healthy, flexible, and happy has become even more important.

About that 50th birthday:  I decided that I wanted to come up with a challenge for my 50th year.  What could be more natural that a swimming challenge?  But swimming 50 times in a year is not a challenge -- I've been doing that and more for years!

So, in honor of my 50th year, which began on February 10, 2010 and ends on February 10, 2011, I am attempting to swim in 50 different locations.  There are very few rules to my swims, but the most important one is, I have to swim.  No hot tubs, kiddie pools, or lily dips.

Here we go!