Dude, you screwed up my time.
Posted on | September 4, 2008 | 2 Comments
It’s no secret that the gym where I work out is filled with grunting wanna be tough guys and “I just wanna tone” girls cycling away aimlessly on treadmills.
That’s OK. They give me some strange looks but are harmless for the most part. They’re easy enough to either ignore, or make fun of, depending on how (im)mature I’m feeling at that particular moment. My somewhat unconventional antics appear to be well tolerated there as well, so I really can’t complain.
Today there was a break in the routine. I was doing a circuit of 800m runs and some lifting, a few rounds performed as quickly as possible. One of those workouts that sounds easy, which is usually the sign that I’m going to get bonerized… hard.
The first round went by easily, at it usually does. I left the treadmill whirring away and went for my next set. Someone walked over, noticed the still running treadmill considered turning it off.
I managed to mumble out something about what I was doing between gasps for air.
Round two on the treadmill… getting a side stitch now, and starting to ponder why I do this to myself. I dismount and half jog half stumble over to the barbell. As I do, an older guy saunters over to the treadmill. Appears to notice that its on (but apparently didn’t) and steps on.
You know where this is going right? It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. The treadmill caught his foot and ejected it behind him at a nice 10mph clip. This caused him to face plant forward onto the moving belt.
Did I mention that the belt was still moving? He was now laying on it, and shot back into the concrete wall behind the treadmill. He tried to roll up as he flew backwards and ended up curled up in a ball with the still moving belt whirring away on his pinned form like a belt sander.
I went over at this point and turned the treadmill off. Explained that I was doing a circuit, and apologized profusely. My first thought was roughly “Crap.. I hope he’s OK”.
This was shortly followed by “Dude, now my time’s all screwed up.”
Thoughts? I do feel a bit bad about the incident, and I’ll have a treadmill sitter in the future, but isn’t it the responsibility on the person using it to make sure its off before they jump on?
As a side note, what is the most disasterous, but unintentionally humorous gym accident you’ve witnessed?
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December 29th, 2008 @ 12:44 am
I usually agree with most of what you write about, but leaving a treadmill on unattended is just plain stupid IMO. Sure, other people ’should’ have a decent look first, but in the environment you work out in, that can’t be expected. Mounting/dismounting at 10mph is also incredibly dangerous, especially when said concrete wall is directly behind the treadmill, it’s only a matter of time before the same happens to you. If you have to do crossfit workouts in this environment, suck it up and note along with your time that your running times include warming the treadmill up to top pace.
I wish you luck
December 29th, 2008 @ 9:45 pm
Thanks for the comment, seriously. I welcome commentary, even when it’s someone disagreeing with me. I agree with you completely about leaving the treadmill on. Anytime I’ve done any circuits since that incident that involve the treadmill, I have a watcher to babysit the treadmill while I’m not on it. As you said, what people “should do” and what is likely to happen are different matters.
I’m not sure I agree with you about mounting and dismounting being an issue, I’d still argue that if you’re aware of the fact that the treadmill is moving and careful this can be done with fairly low risk.