The Tale of the Treadmill

I fell in love with running on the treadmill my freshman year of college. We would always see a lot of snow in the winter and that was my least favorite kind of weather to run in. I often opted for the treadmill during the winter for several reasons. No one really knew how fast or slow I was running on the treadmill so I did not have to be embarrassed about being a slow runner. If I could not get my workout in until late in the evening, I did not need to worry about running in the dark. I could easily spend an hour running on the treadmill. I would watch a favorite television show, read a book for class or study for an upcoming test. By my sophomore year of college, I would lose track of time on the treadmill and found myself running for almost 2 hours sometimes. The best part of the treadmill was that I could quit running whenever I wanted to. I did not need to worry about being 2 miles away from my dorm and either having to walk or run back. I would run on the treadmill whenever it was late, cold or wet outside. I was spending more time running on the treadmill than I would out on the roads.

I quickly fell out of love with the treadmill during the spring of my sophomore year. It was a late weekday evening and I had not gotten my workout in for the day yet. Since it was already dark and cold outside, I opted for a run on the treadmill with one of my favorite television shows on in front of me. I was 1/2 mile into my run when my shoelace came untied. If you know me well, you know that I trip over my own feet very easily, especially when I am running. This was the day that I learned why people attach that little clip from the treadmill to their shirts when they run. Once my shoelace came untied, I tripped and fell down on the treadmill. Due to my lack of common sense, I chose to try to crawl back up the treadmill. I should have just let myself fall off the treadmill, but of course I did not. I frantically tried to crawl back up the treadmill and hoped that I would be able to push the stop button. Once I realized that I was never going to be able to hit the stop button, I just let myself fall off of the treadmill.

There were only a few people in the gym when this happened, but I was still majorly embarrassed. So I tied my shoe very tightly and got back on the treadmill to continue my run. By the time that I had run 1 mile, I began to feel something wet dripping down my leg. Of course I was bleeding because that is what happens when you try to crawl back up a moving treadmill. The bleeding quickly ended my workout so I went back to my dorm room to cleanup the gash on my leg. Just when I thought that the story could not get any more embarrassing, one of my future roommates told me that she had a hilarious gym story to tell me. Her friend had been at the gym and had seen some girl fall off of the treadmill and try to crawl back up it. It only took her one look at my leg to realize that the girl her friend had been talking about was actually me. News sure travels fast when you go to a small college. I was so embarrassed from the treadmill incident that it took me several weeks before I would get back on one again. Thanks to the tale of the treadmill I became an all-weather runner. I began running in snow, sleet, rain, extremely cold temperatures and even hot sunny days. I was not going to get back on a treadmill unless I was absolutely desperate. It took me about two years to be able to run on a treadmill without holding on for the entire run. Needless to say, running on a treadmill is not something that you will find me doing very often.

With all of the rain and wind from Hurricane Sandy yesterday and today, I was tempted to go for a run on the treadmill today. We all know that I do not enjoy the treadmill, but I really do not like running in the pouring rain either. I would rather run in subzero temperatures, which I have before, or snow than be running in pouring rain. When there was a lull in the rain, I went out for a quick 3 mile run. I do not mind running in a light rain because it is actually pretty refreshing and gets you to run a little more quickly. The thought of a nice warm shower or being in your nice warm bed also motivates you to run a little faster. I use the MapMyRun app on my phone to track each of my runs. I usually keep the voice feedback on for every mile, but decided to switch it to 1/2 mile today since I am focused on my speed. When the voice feedback told me that I had completed 1/2 mile in 3:57, I knew that I was going to be in big trouble if I did not slow down. I really wanted to push myself today and see how far I could go so I made sure that each mile split would be around 8:30. This pace was actually not too difficult to maintain thanks to all of the speed workouts that I did with my cross country team this fall. I found myself at the park across the street from my apartment complex at mile 2.5 and I knew that it was time to give it all I had. I kept checking my phone to see if I was done yet and even found myself yell out loud at 2.9 miles that I would be done running in 1 minute. I ran through the parking lot as fast as I could until I reached 3 miles. When I finished running and had a chance to catch my breath, I could not believe that I just ran 3 miles in 25:50 when I checked my phone. I have never been able to run 1 mile in 8:37, let alone 3 miles at that pace! I think that a fantastic run like that calls for a nice big bowl of ice cream after dinner tonight!

9 miles complete in 1:05:50 and only 207 days until conquering 26.2 miles!