Monday, December 26, 2011

resort gym oddities ...

During our fantastic trip to Disney (which I will recap tomorrow), I was given the honor of using our resort's state of the art fitness facility (Note: By "state of the art" I mean that at some point in time it was state of the art. Like in 1982.)

When I first walked in I was psyched. The place was totally empty. I looked around.

Hmm. No bathroom?

OK, I'll just have to hold it.

TVs? Check.

Wait, why are the TVs positioned BEHIND the front of the treadmill? (As in you had to look over your shoulder to see them)

Views? Kind of.

I mean, I could almost see the pool through the blinds, which were broken and couldn't be opened, making for dizzying effects while running.

Equipment? Check.

Two treadmills, two recumbent bikes, two stepclimbers, an elliptical and some weights. Perfect, I have to run and ride. I mean, really, who cares that there were no displays and the buttons were limited to start, stop, faster and slower. And I mean, who needs a functioning incline? Not this girl.

Joking aside, and I'm only kind of joking, the oddest thing about the place were the people I encountered while getting my sweat on.

During my first run, a group of five men with ages ranging from mid-20's to late 40's crashed my quiet gym for an evening workout. Except they were obviously drunk, not wearing workout clothes and just trying to prove their manhood to each other. They held some sort of weight lifting competition and fumbled on the cardio equipment. I was confident that someone was leaving in an ambulance. Fortunately, after about 20 minutes they had enough of the gym and left.

The next day, while riding the bike, a man in his 30's joined me for my workout. Things started off well. I pedaled. He lifted. But then, about 10 minutes into his workout, he noticed the television which I had tuned to my workout standard, NCIS. Apparently, the show was so enthralling that the man never returned to his workout. He just sat on the lat machine staring at the television and texting on his phone. When the episode ended, he got up and left.

The last time I used the gym, I was about two miles into my run when four people came to workout - three teenage girls wearing Uggs (they used the weights and elliptical) and a man in his late 30's/early 40's, who jumped on the treadmill next to me.

When the girls entered, they barely noticed I was there, but the man gave me the "once over" and the eye roll, a typical male response to my skirt and sock combo. I kind of wanted to punch him in the face and say, "I run freaking marathons, sometimes two in one week. My 5K PR is 22:04 and I know my sh*t."

But I didn't. I just turned back to the nausea inducing window and kept running. A few minutes later, he started running next to me. Then, he must have realized the pace I was running, because he picked it up to "catch" me. But, the thing was that I was in the middle of a progression run. So, every half mile, I was picking it up too.

He tried to keep pace. And then it happened. He bumped it up too fast and he nearly wiped out. It was freaking awesome. I kind of chuckled and finished my run. He slowed the pace and stopped trying to prove something.

Let this be a lesson to you all, don't let the skirt fool you.

20 comments:

christa said...

love it "Don't let the skirt fool you"!

carrie said...

<3 this!!! Way to kick his @$$!!!!!

ajh said...

Love it!

NCIS is what I am stretching to these days. Love it too.

ajh said...

Okay, I knew they weren't pretty ..........but dog poop?

Running Ricig said...

That is freaking awesome! When I went to the Disney resort for work, our hotel didn't even have a fitness center, so I literally just had to run in circles around the walkways by the hotel. It was miserable. It would have been way more fun to compete with people on the tm :)

Jen said...

Awesome! I feel the same way; always judged by my skirt! Yay, you!

MotherRunner said...

Haha - funny post. I don't understand workout fakers. Either lift or run or get the heck out of there!

Unknown said...

Ok, at least I know that I'm not making it up when I think that people look at skirts differently. It's what makes me hesitate to wear a skirt.

As much as "free" gyms in resorts sound awesome, I've found that it's always nicer to have a gym in your resort that you have to pay extra for - it keeps the riffraff out :)

Shellyrm ~ just a country runner said...

The things you can learn while at Disney! heehee

I'm sure you have taught quite few people a lesson or two over the year.

Unknown said...

Awesome.
At least the treadmill was electric. When I was traveling for work, years ago, the "hotel" gym only had a manual "treadmill". Ick. No wonder I wasn't a runner back then.

Jason said...

Awesome. Maybe if you were wearing your medals he wouldn't have bothered f'n with you.....just a thought for the next gym resort you go to.

NCIS is what my DVR is full of thanks to my wife. It's really not that bad of a show but not good enough to stop me dead in my tracks and to watch it the whole time when I should be lifting or running.

Char said...

Gotta love that male ego. If they didn't have it we'd have nothing to laugh at.

Unknown said...

That's fantastic! I hate d-bags that think they are the king of the world. Love when a shirk wearer shows him who's boss! :)

Average Woman Runner said...

LOVE IT! HA! Way to show him!
I always get a kick of running on the treadmills at the Y when a dude is clearly trying to match pace. And, I never just run on the treadmills there. If I need to to just run, I go outside. I use those for speed workouts when I can't get to a track. SO - - they have a fun time matching my pace for 1000 m repeats, etc.

giraffy said...

Ha!

Can't wait to hear your Disney recap!

Karien P. said...

Love!

Elizabeth said...

love proving that the skirt doesn’t mean a thing-it just makes you look good :)

Michelle said...

hhahah Love this! So glad to have found your blog!!!

Run with Jess said...

Love this!! Rock that skirt girl!

AMcConn said...

I so wish you had a vid of him nearly bailing on the treadmill --- I love it!