treadmill police

Last night when I went to the gym I was not expecting greatness out of my run. Even though I hadn't run in a few days (or maybe because of it?) some of my joints were a bit achy. I have/had tendinitis in my left ankle so sometimes when it hurts I tend to overcompensate with my right knee. But after I passed the first mile, I started to get into a groove and my body stepped up. I was on track to do the full 2.5 miles I was supposed to do. Then the Treadmill Police came by.

I like to put a towel over my treadmill so I can't see the time or the distance. I find it less stressful that way. Last night, the Treadmill Police came by and asked to see my time. I understand that when it's really busy and there's a line of people waiting to use the treadmills that they ask you limit your time to 30 minutes so I didn't mind that much. Especially since I was only going to be on the treadmill anyway since I was running 2.5 miles, not like I was going to be on there for an hour. When the Policeman came by, I was only at 1.5 miles (I did a 5 minute warm-up walk so I was at 20 minutes total) so I thought "I only have another 10 minutes, no walk breaks! You don't have time!" I was spurred on to do the full 2.5 miles!

Then 5 minutes later, I see him walk back over, check out a few people's times and then stop at my treadmill and say, "You have to stop now." Uhh... what? I still have 5 minutes. When I mentioned this, he responded, "There's a line." Clearly there was no reasoning with this guy. I was bummed because I thought I could do my scheduled 2.5 miles and I only got to do 2 miles (at 6.0 mph with a 1.5 incline the whole time, yeah!), but I understood. If I was on the line, I'd want people to stick to the 30 minutes (even though I didn't get 30 minutes) and I'd want the Treadmill Police to enforce that. So I did a very abbreviated cool-down walk, wiped off my treadmill with the sanitizing towels, and walked over towards the mats to stretch. On my way, I just happened to glance at the treadmill of someone also in my section (and that the Policeman checked on right before me) and noticed that he was over the 30 minute maximum...

Oh hell no! What is that about?! I only got 25 minutes and this guy get's to run for as long as he likes? That's BS. BS, I TELL YOU!

I was going to say something to the Policeman but I didn't want to rat this guy out. I mean, good for him if the Treadmill Police didn't notice or didn't care that he went over the 30 minutes. If I went over the 30 minutes, I wouldn't want some bitter completely justified person tattling on me. However, the Policeman clearly saw that he was over 30 minutes and just didn't care. Ugh. My Wellesley training wanted me to yell out "Sexism!" but I didn't. I don't like confrontation with people I don't know and I don't think it was necessarily sexism. It might have been discriminatory though since I was wearing a blue shirt and both the guy and the Policeman were wearing red shirts...

I'll let you decide.

Cons of NYSC at night: the Treadmill Police
Cons of NYSC during the day: I can't get there because I have a day job

-J

PS: Tonight, we attempt the full 2.5 miles. I may kick it up to 6.5 mph since then I'll either be done sooner so I can do a full cool-down or I'll have run farther if I do get kicked off.
PPS: Alternatively, I may try doing my warm-up on the ellipticals instead of on the treadmill so I get the full 30 mins for running instead of warm-up and running.
PPPS: What am I going to do when I'm supposed to run 4-6 miles on wednesdays closer to the race?!