(Mini) Vacation Running

This weekend we took a weekend mini-vacation to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to go skiing. Before leaving, I mapped out a run that would take me through downtown Gettysburg and several of the surrounding battlefields. I was looking forward to the novel sights and sounds of running a different route.

However, winter once again got in the way of my plans.

Pulling in to the parking lot of the hotel, I started to have apprehensions about the likelihood of my run taking place as planned because the hotel was on a busy highway with no sidewalk and very little shoulder due to the piles of snow that had accumulated because of plowing. After settling in, we walked across the street to get a snack and the ground was a solid sheet of ice in most places. I resigned myself to a no-go run, decided to sleep in and started making plans to run after we got home on Sunday.

The next morning, to my surprise I woke up with plenty of time to get in a run (without the alarm) and after laying in bed for a few minutes I realized I had no excuse not to get up and check out the hotel’s gym.

By 6:30 I was on the hotel’s only treadmill, trying to figure out how it worked. There was no manual button, only buttons for pre-programmed workouts most of them with significant inclines and speeds up to a fast walk, and none of them longer than 30 minutes. After a few frustrating minutes, I just started one of the programs, upped the speed and decreased the incline EVERY TWO MINUTES as it would try to force me through the programmed settings.

Rather than give in to the frustration, I told myself that I could make the most of it since it might actually make the indoor miles go by much quicker. Any in fact, the first 30 minutes and 3 miles did seem to go by pretty quickly. I jumped off the treadmill, did a quick set of pushups and then jumped right back on.

I set the program again and started running but I was determined to find a manual setting. The more I thought about it, the less sense it made. What kind of treadmill wouldn’t have a manual setting? This is insane. I graduated from college. I cannot let a treadmill defeat me.

And then I found, buried three deep under some category that didn’t make any sense. Satisfied that I hadn’t been beaten by a piece of machinery, I settled in for the next hour or 6 miles of running; eager to just while away the time and get the run over with.

I listened to some podcasts – Smodcast and two episodes of This American Life and just bopped along.

About halfway through that second hour, another hotel guest decided to gym me in the gym. He turned on the TV, warmed up and hit the universal gym weight machine.

And then a second guy came in to the gym. I had seen this gym peek in to the gym about a half hour early and this time he decided to stay. He climbed on the recumbent bike next to me, peddled very slow and kept throwing glances in my direction.

Ten minutes later, two more people show up. This gym consists of one treadmill, one bike, one elliptical and a universal gym weight machine so it is officially over-crowded at this point. The bike guy’s glances are getting more and more impatient.

I stop the treadmill a little less than a half mile short of the 9 planned miles and gave up on the run. I was a little bummed that I couldn’t finish out the run in relative piece and quiet but I have to respect that I had hogged the machine for most of the morning.

Oh well. At least I was able to run while on vacation and I felt great being able to start my day better than I had thought I would be able to start it. I was ready to face a day on the bunny slopes!