I Sincerely Tip My Hat ...

... to those of you who ever use a treadmill or other (torturous) exercise machine. I had a plan for my course today, and it was a great plan ... thwarted by a little thing called THUNDER and SCARY LIGHTENING. My parents taught me not to play outside when it's like that, and I've already deemed tomorrow the Rest Day, so I grumbled my way downstairs to put the miles on the treadmill.

(* a special thanks to my Pit Crew Leader and household techie for setting me up with headphones for the t.v. ... which also marked a new running-related injury to consider ... ear ache from the headphones! I know, I'm complaining, but it hurts!)

So, how'd it go? It totally blew. I'm not even going to sugar-coat that one. I hate the treadmill. I spent the first mile ... first mile ... singular-digit mile ... griping to myself about how much I hated it. It's not productive, but it's real, what can I say. My prevalent thoughts while on the mean machine:

"This sucks."
"Thank goodness for recorded t.v."
"I'll check my time/mileage at the next commercial ... no, now ... no, next commercial ..."
"Seriously, not finished yet?!"
"MMMMM ... COLD DIET COOOOOOOOOOOOKE!!"

Well, I did finish ... to be honest, the last half wasn't as bad as the first. I stopped being a baby and just kept going by that point.

AND, THEN came the Saturday ritual of getting bagels, taking them to our favorite fast-food restaurant (where we can bring in a cup and get a Diet Coke with refills for 53 cents ... yeah!!!!) and play card games. I was most interested in the Diet Coke (which you know by now).

The youngest member of the Pit Crew is also a Diet Coke fan, and I'm usually good about sharing. However, post-11-miler on the treadmill doesn't do much for my sharing desire, and he almost got hurt. It went like this:

Oh my gosh, this is like nectar of the gods ...

What? You want a sip? I think not, so back off!

No, seriously, I can't do much to protect my Diet Coke here
because there are security cameras, but I still suggest you back off!

You'll be pleased to know that no one was hurt in the defense of my hard-earned soda. I will say, though, that once I got up from sitting there for a bit, it might seem to the casual observer that the Diet Coke had been "enhanced" as I had the post-long run wobbly legs.

I'm off to mow ... no way am I wrecking tomorrow's rest day by doing that!