To have been shamed at the gym

[Bonbon12]

I am a plus size lady who has made it her New Years resolution to lose weight. I joined a gym in December and mainly use the pool. I suffer from knee pain so I have to use the pool for my exercise I can't do running or bike.

So I do little bit of swim-hops/walking which helps my knee and also helps me lose weight. When I arrived I went into the fast lane as it was completely empty and was the smallest lane. It suddenly got really busy and that made other lanes quite busy.

Then two men moved into my lane. They started a fast swim. I asked them could they wait another 15 mins for me to finish and that I have a knee problem so this is helps me.

They replied that "that's not our problem and that the pool was for those who do real exercise". I replied it is real exercise and then I heard one of the men mutter "it's not the lard lane" and I left straight away.

Aibu to think that these men are complete cunts.

They where unreasonable with their nasty comment that makes them childish cunts I thought bullying stopped in the playground but you where being unreasonable to ask them to wait 15 minutes for you to finish what you where doing you should've just moved in to a different lane.

My reference to the genteel swimmers was to the perfumed, made up end of the market. Had I learned to swim 10 years earlier, delightful floral, rubber swimming caps were still avaliable in the local department store for the purposes of preserving hair dos.

I will confess to a slight jealousy of those able to swim with their head up. Swimming is not a social occasion for me as when my head goes up, my legs and bum go down and I flounder. There's times at spas and holidays that it would be useful when people are bathing rather than swimming.

Agree with everyone else about the fast lane and that those guys were absolute knob heads, hope it doesn't put you off. I always found the middle lane was the worst for the over inflated egos - lots of people who couldn't stop for two second to let someone pass at the end of the lap (especially if that someone was a woman or less butch man). Ridiculous, clearly none of us are going to make it as olympic swimmers so it really shouldn't be that competitive.

If there's insecure male runners out there, perhaps they could all do an insecure triathlon together. Properly snorted at that.

I like to swim up behind them, under the divider into the medium lane, power past and pop up in front of them. Gives them the right rage, that does. The preferred method is to do this using breaststroke whist they are using the crawl.

They were rude but you were in the wrong.

Why did you imagine you could take over an entire lane to yourself; and expect everyone else to leave you to it for 15 minutes?? You sound like a bloody nightmare...

You should have moved out of the fast lane without being asked - you were unreasonable to ask them to wait 15 minutes. The comment about it not being real exercise wasn't rude in my opinion - the man who mentioned "lard lane" was rude though.

Did the OP ever come back, I wonder?

They were rude but to be honest, I'd be also thinking and maybe even saying some rude things if someone were hogging the fast lane during my swim or asked me to wait for 15 minutes while I'm jogging because the walkers in front of me want to finish first.

If there's insecure male runners out there, perhaps they could all do an insecure triathlon together bahahahahahaha! Proper LOL at that! And at pool wankers

I've come across a swimmer like OP before. She was hopping/flailing/ground to a halt in the middle of the fast lane. I was there first and didn't see her get in. I swim head down crawl, and I was training for an ironman triathlon, so I'd been in there an hour, ploughing up and down non stop and I was deep in a swim trance. I barrelled straight into her because why would I expect that there was someone standing in the middle of the fast lane?? She yelled at me not to be so aggressive, then humphed out of the pool and reported me to the lifeguard, who I assume told her to cop onto herself, because she vanished after that.

You were a bit unreasonable for hogging the fast lane. They were incredibly rude for making personal remarks to you.

Did the OP ever come back, I wonder?

Why would OP come back when people are calling her a 'massive cunt' even after she admitted she was BU?

YABVVU. You were absolutely taking liberties being in the fast lane in the first place. Asking people to wait 15 minutes for you?? That's COMPLETELY unreasonable. While they shouldn't have said what they did, I have to say any sympathy I might have had for their comments evaporated when you chose to use the word c**t.

So true Becca8675309!
So let me get this straight YABVVU, 'lard' is an unacceptable reference to another person but 'c**t' is??
Just because you're called out on something you know you shouldn't be doing anyway, you don't suddenly get the moral high ground. Quite the contrary - especially if you then think profanity is a useful addition to self-centric behaviour. It's not weight you most need to lose - it's attitude.

Ooh I have real lane rage reading these comments! Why don't people get the rules of lane swimming? It's really easy. Get in a lane that matches your speed. Move if your speed or the av speed of the lane changes. Let people past if they are faster. Don't block the lanes by chatting or drifting or whatever. And have a bloody shower before you get in!

This is now on the Daily Mail. Funnily enough they haven't mentioned the OP calling the men cunts

NOT surprised it's on the DM. It's a good story..

The op is probably the journalist

There's a LOT of it about

Her incident received a mixed response on Mumsnet, with many women saying while it was ride for them to refer to her as a 'lard', she should not have been using the lard lane.

Their journos are crap, they've called the lane 'lard lane' instead of 'fast lane'

Love the the incorrect pictures. They couldn't find pics of a woman 'swim hopping' so have used pics of a woman using weights in the pool.

Oh!! The OP is a work experience journalist, not a swim-hopping larger lady. Fancy that.

This thread has inspired me to go swimming although I'm going to go to the female only swim session, because it's not fully of men showing off, and I'm going to swim not hope.

Hop. Not hope. Damn you autocorrect

Oh FFS, the journos are becoming even more pathetic at their attempts

Saying that it got a mixed response is a misrepresentation of the thread. It was basically unanimous. The op was in the wrong for using the wrong lane. The men were wrong to call her lardy.

It definitely wasn't a mixed response. Correct me if I'm wrong but I can't remember anyone saying they should have waited for her to finish walking (or hopping) slowly in the fast lane.

Clearly not enough going on in the world for this to need to be reported on.

Can I just point out, I am a head up breast stoke person and I swim in the medium lane but can keep the same pace as those in the fast lane. I just don't go in there because of the pressure and stress. I don't get my face wet because I wear glasses which are such a high prescription that if I swam without them I wouldn't be able to leave the changing room unaided, let alone see where the pool was.

If I swam with the proper technique I learned before becoming almost blind, I'd most def be in the fast lane. I actually don't swim these days because I build up massive arms and shoulders very quickly, which I don't like on me.