"Pool Etiquette"

So I had an interesting experience tonight. Lately I have been swimming laps at a local gym (not mine) because swimming laps is about one of the last exercise-y things I can do and NOT feel pregnant. My body appreciates the non-weight bearing movement as well.

So the pool I went to had 2 lanes roped off for lap swimmers and the rest was open for family swim and lessons. Well, one lane had a guy swimming laps who looked to be fairly knowledgeable and able and the other lady had an older, bigger lady, who looked to be having more of a "refreshing dip" than a workout. I figured I would join the lady because I would rather dodge someone than have someone dodging me.

I entered the pool right as she was making her turn, and waited for her to turn at the end of the lane before I started my warm-up lap. Customary approach - or so I thought.

Now..I'm no Michael Phelps...but I can do a decent crawl stroke, stay in my half of the lane and pretty much hold my own in a pool (thank you 1 year of swim team and 3 years of lifeguarding). Well, on my way down the lane, I was doing breast stroke and the other lady was doing the crawl (so keep in mind we were coming at each other face first - she wasn't doing backstroke) and I pass her right about half way and out of no where she pops up out of the water and yells at me "Jesus!...Don't you know you are supposed to ask if you can share a lane?"

Um...excuse me?

I have to say I was a little shocked. I stopped, looked at her and replied "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I thought you saw me get into the lane. My apologies".

So I make the turn at the end of the lane and as I'm approaching the end I started at, I see her get out of the water, collect her kick board, and shoot me a nasty glare (still doing head up breast stroke at this point) and start to walk off.

I apologized again...and while I felt bad for startling her, I was grateful to no longer have to be sharing the lane with someone who obviously wasn't there to get her heart rate up.

So she goes into the locker room and comes back out a couple minutes later. She's changed her swim cap from a lavendar latex flavor to a blue flower print spandex one (apparently you can't share a lane with someone else unless you are wearing the proper type of swim cap). So I'm still doing my laps, minding my business, and she gets back in the pool, in my lane, and proceeds to start doing back stroke.

And she didn't ask my permission to share my lane. I thought we just went through this.

So we are able to ambically share a lane for about 10 minutes, both of us going down and back (as opposed to a circle) and then she got out for good. WHATEVER!

So my question is - are you really supposed to ask "permission" to share a lane at a gyms pool? I mean, I'll say I was wrong if I was wrong, but I don't know. What if she hadn't stop to acknowledge my presence? Do I just wait until she does..or do I stop her and ask? Or what if she had told me "No."?

Regardless...I might have been rude by not asking permission to share "her" lane..but come one..was it really so bad you had to yell at me in the middle of the pool? I mean, I know I'm pregnant and all, but I'm pretty sure I still fit pretty easily in half the lane...and as long as we both can swim in a straight line we should be able to both use the lane and get along. Maybe that was her problem - maybe she couldn't swim in a straight line.