Arlington Park and Aquatic Center. Have Goggles, Will Travel Pool #100

Pool 100 - at last!

At last, pool 100, only … I didn’t realise it when I started the swim!

So, the previous two years have been thin on new pool entries, and I had fallen behind with recent pool posts; I completely forgot I had three pools in draft notes waiting to add to the site… When I arrived in Florida this week, I thought I was starting with pool 94 and had six swims to reach the hundred!

The Arlington sports complex is a proper community sporting venue with extensive facilities. Being a Saturday morning, it’s full of kids attending various sporting activities.

To access the pool, I first have to sign-up for a City of Sarasota sports pass - using the least user-friendly sign-up form I’ve ever seen! After a few attempts to submit the form, I’m finally in the system and issued my pass, which grants me access to all Sarasota city pools (although I still have to pay the day entry rate).

This is a full 50m x 25-yard pool, catering for both long and short-course competitions. The pool is currently set up in a short-course format - with a full complement of twenty 2.5m wide lanes!

It’s a roasting 90 degrees on the pool deck, so jump into the perfectly clear and cool water and make a start - I have just enough time to complete 2,000 yards before I need to head to the local Starbucks for a meeting - and my new favourite post-swim-drink, iced caramel macchiato!

When I first started recording each new pool swim, I thought the first 100 pools might take two years to complete, here we are almost six years later!.