My Gym Buddy

Now that fall is upon us it's getting too dark to run outside in the morning. So the last couple workouts I've done have been at my little gym (an Anytime Fitness place). It's not like a full on gym with aerobics classes and a pool. Just basic stuff, treadmills, elliptical, bikes, weights, etc... It's really not your typical gym crowd either. No hard bodied super athletes, just your average people trying to make time to work out. My gym seems especially popular with the retired age crowd. It's awesome to see some of these older people coming in and getting their exercise. One fellow is there every morning at the same time I go. I'm guessing he's in his late 70's, but man he's still going strong! He comes in there and power walks on the treadmill for 20 minutes or so, then he does a little weight routine, then comes back to the treadmill, and back to the weights.

Anyway, I've ended up running by him a couple times and the other day I came in and before I could get my headphones on he turned to me and said, "So, ya come to run another 10 miles again?" I just smiled and laughed (since I've obviously never run 10 miles on a treadmill) but then he kept talking. "What are you, like a marathon runner or something?" Well I'm not gonna lie, that felt really good to hear that! Someone saw me running and thought I was a marathoner? He can definitely be my friend! I mean, yeah, I did run 1 marathon but sometimes I still don't feel like people would see me running and think, "wow, she must be a runner." It was definitely one of those "look how far I've come" moments. I totally remember running next to people at the gym and seeing them crank out high speeds or lots of miles and being like, "Wow! Now that person is a runner!!" Guess now people (well, at least my little gym buddy) think that of me.

Anyway, this morning I was back at the gym and of course he was there. He said, "So what's the work out gonna be today?" I told him 5 miles and he smiled and said, "well get to it!" So there you have it. Darker mornings and colder weather force me to run indoors, but at least I have my gym buddy there to make the experience a little bit brighter. : )