Forced Outside

I've seen broken treadmills. I've had slow treadmills that were maddening, but I hadn't run into a stopped treadmill. Up early on Sun morning before I needed to get to the airport, I hit the fitness center. I hopped on the treadmill, hit start, and things lit up, the numbers changed, I could enter my weight and age, but the belt wouldn't move.

I tried a few things, and even though I was in a Holiday Inn Express, I didn't know how to fix it. Three minutes after pressing a lot of buttons I gave up and headed outside, jogging through the local neighborhood as the day started in the New York neighborhood of Corona.

It was a little annoying as I didn't have a route, no phone or GPS, just my watch and me, cruising along uneven, broken sidewalks in a crowded urban setting. Very few people up at that hour, shops shuttered and barred as I headed out. Fifteen minutes later, as I turned and came back, I saw more people waiting for buses, a few shopkeepers mopping out their space, tossing buckets of soapy water onto the sidewalks, and the day beginning.

It was actually a fun run, and he temperature helped. I hadn't prepped well for a fall trip to the NE, but it was actually fairly dry and warm, and a t-shirt and shorts worked out fine, with just a slight chill on my exposed skin.