Yesterday was the first snow of the season here in Clinton,
Ontario. And Mother Nature decided not to ease us into this by just dropping a
few little snowflakes on the ground, but rather to bring the house and dump an
ungodly amount on day 1.
Being an Australian who rarely sees the stuff, it’s still
kind of a novelty. Now instead of the usual distractions available to me (TV,
internet, food) while I’m meant to be studying, there was a new one on the
list-staring out the window. It’s like I’m a kid in the 1930’s-I find myself
just staring out the window, watching the white stuff fall from the sky and
accumulate on the ground. I don’t know what that has to do with a kid in the
1930’s…probably nothing…but regardless, I am sure kids have been doing it for centuries
(well at least as far back as we invented windows to stare out of).
The worst part about all of this was that I’d scheduled a
run in for yesterday. The fact Canadian winters are 5000% colder than
Australian winters, I decided that slipping around on freshly fallen snow and
freezing my tits off for an hour was pretty undesirable. More undesirable than
a boring treadmill run at the gym? Yep. That’s what it had come to…for once, I
was itching to run on a treadmill.
Treadmill running to me is still running, but something’s
not right. It’s like a Diet Coke version of running. There are no trails to
discover, no trees to run under, no poop to step in, no anything. It’s the same
thing over and over and over again. Ok so maybe no poop to step in is a good thing,
but I’d rather run that risk running over various poop-covered terrain than
running in a tedious poop-free indoor environment.
I slipped, slided and nearly crashed the car in the snow
drove myself to the gym and instead of finding myself feeling slightly out of
place in the weights area with the boys, I found myself still feeling slightly
out of place going there solely for the treadmill with the girls.
As I started pounding the pavement (rubber?) I stared
directly in front of me. Not at an ever changing environment with trees, or
fields, or animals, but at the same thing. Out the window that separates the
gym from the hockey rink at the YMCA. Every few minutes another parent would
drop their kid off to hockey training and look through the window to see a sexy
sweaty man (me) boring myself slowly to death on this treadmill. I can only
imagine the looks I was getting, were the same looks mice get as one wanders
the pet store and sees them running fruitlessly on their little mouse wheel.
The difference was no one was making fun of my tail I had access to many
other avenues of enjoyment (TV, internet) whereas the mice in the pet store,
the mouse wheel is the top of the entertainment food chain. I guess I was
starting to feel better about myself after all.
Anyway after what I guessed was 10kms on the treadmill (it
was measured in miles, so my calculation of 6.2 miles was bang on-thank you
nerdy genes!) I stepped away and left the gym. On my way out I said to the girl
at the desk “well I guess I’ll see you next time it snows”. Her reply was
disheartening…”We’ll see you tomorrow then”. Mother Nature 1, Nick 0.
I should probably get talking to the gym manager about perhaps changing this one to a regular treadmill
Or you are a turtle without a watch
Perhaps the most awesome use of treadmills ever. Note: You get strange looks when you attempt to recreate this at the gym by yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment