Pool etiquette, or lack thereof

I need to vent. My girlfriend and I, who are trying to train for a triathlon in 5 weeks (eek!) went to the pool today for a workout. We have to call no more than 2 days in advance to reserve a 1 hour block in the childcare room. The room books up on Fridays, so you've got to call first thing in the morning. Ok, so we got a slot. I was running a little bit late (kids) and my friend, even later because her 6 mo. old was actually taking a long nap and she didn't want to wake him too soon. So by the time I got to the pool, the time was ticking on our workout because we only get the time reserved, even if we're late. The pool was having family time, which meant that only 2 of the 4 lanes were available for lap swimming. Anyhoo... I got there right after 2 older women (who were together) entered the pool and each took a lane. I proceeded to enter the pool and waited at one end for the woman to swim back and asked her if she had a preferred side for splitting the lane. She just said, "Oh, I can't share a lane." She outright refused to share a lane because it would interfere with her workout. Are you kidding me? I've never heard of someone refusing to share a lane. I stormed off to the front desk to ask what the gym's policy is on lane sharing. "You can share a lane..." Of course I CAN share a lane, but what do I do if someone won't share a lane? Basically, she said, they won't make anyone do anything -- a totally non committal answer. When my friend arrived, seeing that I was fuming, decided to try to talk to the women and to appeal to their common courtesy by telling them that our kids were in the childcare room and we had very limited time. You won't believe what the response was to that. "I don't have kids." No kidding. I gotta say, the word that kept entering my mind over and over and over was b****. Anyway, luckily for us, shortly thereafter, the 2-lane area where the families were swimming cleared out and we were able to swim there (sharing it with another swimmer and offering it to a 4th who opted to wait for an open lane,) and luckily no other families came to swim until we were done. I looked up "pool etiquette" on the web and I could only find rules for how to actually share, but nothing on what to do if someone won't share and nothing that said you could refuse! Why are people so inconsiderate? And I can say, that after my 3 month membership is up, I won't ever re-join that health club because they did nothing to facilitate my time time there! (Perhaps if they come out with a pool etiquette policy, I'd be willing to consider it.)