Game of Survivor!

Being the 4th of January, the gym is full of them. You know who they are; they're easy to pick out. The ones that have made a New Year's Resolution, are in there for the first time, or after finding their existing gym membership card from last year's failed attempt. You likely won't see them again after a few weeks.


No, I didn't win a million dollars or have my flame put out, but tonight's treadmill run felt like a game of Survivor.  Let me explain.


Scheduled endurance building run on the training plan for tonight, 1h20 min non-stop run. I've never done that before -- certainly not since injury.  Since it was supposed to be in my zone 1 (which because of my naturally high heart rate would mean walking, I figured zone 2 will work....an easy slow run. Picked a speed on the treadmill which fell in the middle of my zone 2 heart rate range hoping that I could last the entire 80 minutes.


When I arrived, there were 2 empty treadmills, one of them being right between two people walking. Soon after I started those two left, as did some of the others... all fresh faces now on the treadmills. About 35 minutes into my run, this teenage-looking guy gets on the treadmill next to mine, fumbles with a few of the buttons, and gets off, deciding to get onto the elliptical instead. 


The treadmill stops after 60 minutes, so I straddled the belt after pushing the stop button to try to reset it as quickly as possible to get back to running. Less than a minute later, I'm running at the same pace I started, tackling the last 20 minutes.  That same guy's friend comes over to the same treadmill he had attempted earlier, looks at my screen, overhear him shout to his friend that he was going to run for 10 minutes through the music on my ipod.  He looked at my screen again, fumbled with the buttons until he's satisfied with his speed. Within 20 seconds, he's pushing the up arrow to increase his pace, constantly glancing at my screen. I mentioned that my pace was pretty slow... it was, and yes, he was going faster... but by this point, I had already run for about 64 minutes, with another 16 left to go. He continues to increase his pace, glancing at mine, almost like he wants to initiate a race, to see if I'll feel defeated enough to pick mine up... but I didn't.  


I didn't because I had already won... his hands were now on the rails, holding up his body, his breathing labored, beads of sweat are building and dripping on his brow, he's looking like he's close to his puke-threshold. He slammed down on the stop button like he was playing a game of jeopardy, and nearly slid off the treadmill, the time on the screen reading 1:13.  Yes, one minute, 13 seconds.  

I outwitted him by picking a speed that I could maintain for my planned duration. I outplayed him by sticking to my original plan and not letting my ego get in the way, and I outlasted him by 78:47! At least it provided some entertainment and made my treadmill run somewhat enjoyable!  :)


I also wanted to share the following with you all. My friend Jerry will soon embark on an incredible journey. He's currently serving in Afghanistan with the US Army, counting down the days until he comes home mid-march. Days later, he will be starting an amazing charity run; 26 marathons and 1 Ironman within a year to raise money for Freedom is not Free, a charity that helps disabled veterans and the families of fallen soldiers. Please check out his website 262forsoldiers, and if you can help him with your support and a donation, I know he'd be grateful.  Hope you all had a fantastic Monday!