Treadmill fail and big box stores

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I thought I packed all my needed running items for a weekend away, but forgot the critical running jacket and the belt.

I woke up at a little before 4am in the hotel room and realized I was missing these items. Thankfully I packed shorts and a t-shirt just in case I need to run on a treadmill to get my miles in for one reason or another. Missing the belt wasn't a big deal, but the missing jacket gave me pause. I went to the fitness room to find the treadmill where I was greeted by florescent lights too glaring for so early in the morning.

I've never run on a treadmill. I figured it would be pretty straight forward. Set some buttons and go. I mashed the touch screen trying to convert my anticipated pace into miles per hour. The machine started with a whir sound. I stepped on and started to run. It felt awful. Im not sure if I was going too fast or the machine went too slow, but one way or another I felt very out of control and I did not like that one bit. I couldn't get into sync quick enough to keep trying. I didn't have the patience to learn one more piece of technology. I just wanted to run then go back to bed or maybe enjoy the continental breakfast with the predictable waffle iron that either created a perfect waffle or a complete mess from the bits of batter sticking to it.

Perhaps because I was out of place and routine, it took the treadmill failure for me to think about just wearing my normal everyday coat for the run. A bulky solution to say the least, but I needed the layer. Easy effort miles were on the agenda today so I wasn't going to try and break any land speed records.

Once resolved to run outdoors, I needed to figure out what direction to run in. Of course I looked at the map the night before. Nothing exciting. Just big box store alleys or very busy roads. I figured I'd made the best of it. At least the parking lots and walkways of the stores were clear of snow. (It would be nice if as much effort could be put into building and clearing sidewalks as went into clearing the loading areas of these massive cooperate retailers.)

It really is amazing how long the loop around a strip of big box stores and/or mall area can be. There is a ton of parking lot out there and it is completely unused apart from a few stray cars parked overnight for one reason or another. Back behind the long row of stores, where the loading docks are at, it felt bleak as if they put so much effort with their front windows they had zero energy left to spend on anything behind the buildings.

After the weirdest route ever I wrapped the whole thing up with a lap around the hotel.

The lights in the fitness room were still on, but it was as empty as I left it.


Appendix: Running checklist
Headlamp
Safety lights
Leggings
Jacket
Socks
Shoes
Gloves
Belt
Watch
Phone
Long sleeve shirt

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