Embarcadero YMCA

Spent most of the day in not-so-comfortable chairs at TechCrunch Disrupt, plus I’ve now had an 8-inch 'meat with more meat' sandwich for lunch two days in a row. Safe to say, I was overdue for a swim! Took an early evening walk down Market Street in saech of the Embarcadero YMCA.

The Embarcadero YMCA is right near the Ferry Building, at the end of historic Market Street, nestled among Salesforce’s downtown SFO campus. Got in on a first-visit guest pass, which was free—nice touch—but it took a solid 10 minutes to fill out the sign-up form. At least they threw in a complimentary towel for the effort!

The pool’s up on the first floor (second floor if you're American), squeezed into a super compact downtown building; the low ceiling gives the whole place a slightly claustrophobic feel and the air feels warm and 'heavy' like the space needs better ventilation. The pool is packed with swim lessons and casual swimmers - there also seem to be as many people dressed and standing around on the pool deck as in the water! Still, I managed to get through a solid 3,200-yard swim. By the end of the swim, the pool has emptied to just a few people, think I timed this one just wrong and hit the early evening post-work crowd; regardless, swim done.

After a quick shower, I headed back to the changing rooms, only to find my locker right next to a kid clearly working through some anger issues. He’d spun his towel into a whip and was repeatedly cracking it against the end of a row of lockers. Weirdest part? No one else seemed to bat an eye. He kept going, even though I was just four feet away. A quick “I hope you don’t hit me with that towel,” and he seemed to get the message.

Finished up and strolled over to the Ferry Building to grab a sandwich at Gott’s. It’s been seven years since I last ate there—fingers crossed it’s still as good as I remember!