1 December 2021
I began tracking my pools after my 40th birthday in 2007, but was principally using a (now defunct) blogging feature on the old US Masters Swimming website. At some point a number of years later, I transferred the list to a Google Sheet, which is what is linked to my Pool List page here. I wasn't always super diligent in the early years about taking photos of every pool I swam in, but I've been slowing searching through old desktops, external hard drives, OneDrives, phones, Instagram, etc. to try to see what pictures I have and what I'm missing. Along the way, I'm periodically trying to fill out my Pool Pics.
In the course of this effort this past weekend, I made a startling discovery: I somehow missed adding the Rutgers Aquatic Center (photo from their website) to my list!!
While I first would have swum here in the early 2000s with the Masters team that used to train here and at the 2003 Long Course Masters Nationals, I attended a Colonies Zone Short Course Meters Championships over the December 5th to 7th, 2008 weekend. I very much remember this meet as my father joined me in competing ... and it was the early, golden days of the full-body tech suits so I swam very fast.
Now, as someone admittedly a little bit obsessive about the details, this is a great mistake to correct. On the other hand, my detail obsession and the fact that I have my list in chronological order means that this is pool #14 ... and I now need to go back an update lots of places on this website (pictures, blog posts) where I refer to a pool by its position on the list.
That's gonna take some time ... but this also means that, as of today, I've swum in 499 pools: two more to go (which will happen next week) and I'll have past the halfway mark.