Mean Girl(s)?

This morning I was reminded how I used to call one woman in my lane "Mean Girl". We're actually very chummy now and I barely remember how she seemed kind of resentful when I got moved into her lane. But today we had a run-in with a new guy.

So, new guy. He came into our lane from the one below ours because they had too many people. So it was him and 3 women. He breached several items of swimming etiquette that gradually annoyed the 3 of us more and more until finally B (the former mean girl) couldn't stand it any longer. Here's what happened:

1) He took off first almost every. single. time. That's not how it works. Usually we decide as a lane what order we go in based on how everyone is feeling and who is usually faster. Since he came from a slower lane, I assumed he would go last. Instead he took off first almost every time and we would wind up waiting until he had completed almost a whole length before we started so that we wouldn't be swimming on top of him by the end of the set.

2) He swam down the middle of the lane. There were 4 of us in the lane, which means we were circle swimming, and there's plenty of room to swim on either side of the lane. New guy swam sort of to the side, but really more down the middle. He's a big guy - probably 6' 2" or so, and not skinny. We were dodging him every time we passed him. Then at one of his starts, he sped out right down the middle and almost completely took out K, who was just finishing her last set.

3) He clobbered me over the head with one of his giant arms. We did a 50 of backstroke and as soon as I finished I scooted over to the middle of the lane, leaving plenty of room on the right for the next person to finish. Apparently he wasn't paying attention and came barreling into me (because, as I discussed in 2, he was in the center of the lane), whacking me on the head with his arm. He apologized, but geez. You have to be a little bit self aware when you're swimming with a bunch of people.

4) He took off first (see 1) AND he messed up the workout. We were supposed to do a 50 backstroke, followed by a 100 (50 back, 50 free), followed by a 150 (50 back, 100 free), etc. He did the 50 as 25 back, 25 free. Then he did a 50 and stopped. So we just kept on going and finished the 100. When I breathed before my flipturn and he realized I would be the second person to pass him, I heard him say, "Hey, wait a minute...", but that's all I heard because I kept going. Then I don't know what he did, but he messed up the 150 somehow. So at the next rest, B called our coach over and asked her to explain to him how to read the workout. Especially since he was insisting on going first and all. Rather than just say, "oh, ok, I see," he made his worst mistake:

5) He claimed that he didn't mess up, but he passed us somehow and was actually a 50 ahead of us. Um, no. That's when I got involved and B and I were both saying to him "No. You are NOT a 50 ahead of us." It was so ridiculous. At no point did he lap us. But rather than accept that maybe he didn't get the workout right, he kept insisting, "No, I passed you." Grrr.

So then B was REALLY irritated and she stopped waiting for him to finish a length before she left the wall, and she wound up on his toes the ENTIRE rest of the workout. And me and the other lady were right behind her. He wound up gasping for air at the end of it because, hey, it turns out he's not faster than us after all.

So maybe I was a little bit of a Mean Girl today too. But my head was still aching from getting whacked.