So, I was gossiping with a gym friend yesterday (yes, I gossip. Shoot me.) and she was trying to explain who, exactly, was the courageous man married to No Holds Barred Naked Lady Woman. He was older and handsome with salt and pepper hair, she explained, he had a nice body. He was, she kept repeating, “You know - that guy on the Elliptical. If you saw him, you’d totally know who he was. He’s always on the same Elliptical for 45 minutes.”
I thought about my favorite piece of cardio equipment, the StepMill I’ve logged so many hours on, it practically has my Size 10 Adidas footprints worn into the stairs.
“Do you think people call me, ‘That girl on the stair machine?’” I asked her.
“Totally!” she said. “If I were going to describe you to someone else here, that’s what I would say. And I bet people would call me, ‘That girl who’s always running on the track.’”
Hmmm. Not sure how I feel about this. Of course I’m proud of my strong workout ethic and dedication. But I don’t want to be pigeonholed as the crazy stair-climbing girl. True, I would be the one responsible for said pigeonholing, as it is I who decide to climb aboard the same dang machine day in and day out. But in my defense, I’m somewhat limited in what I can do because of my neck (no running, no Spinning, no cardio classes, no upper-body weight machines, push-ups, crunches, etc). I don’t necessarily WANT to be “that girl” on the machine…yet I apparently am.
Are any of you “that girl”s? That girl on the recumbent bike? That girl In the front row of yoga class? That girl on the hamstring curl machine?
Join me – it’s lonely at the top of the StepMill.
PS For all you future “That Girls” looking to join a gym, check out my glamour.com piece - The 10 Questions You Need to Ask Before Joining a Gym.
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