Note to Self...

I had intended on giving you all a vacation recap today, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I had a "little incident" on the treadmill at the gym today that I thought would be far more entertaining for you all to read. You see, every few years I do something really embarassing and boneheaded, today was one of those occasions. I was going to post pictures of the aftermath, but they just didn't do the injuries justice, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

I was kind of having an off day on the treadmill to begin with, but I had no idea how ugly things would actually get. First, I couldn't get my personal headphones to work on my iPod, so I decided to use headphones that the gym provides. I already had to stop my warm-up to go get clean earpads for the headphones, so I wasn't thrilled when about 1/3 of the way into my workout, my towel fell off the hand rest and flew down the belt to the floor behind me. Instead of turning off the machine to retrieve it, I opted to just hop off the machine. Everything was fine and well until I went to get back onto the machine and totally forgot that the belt was still running! I can't remember for sure, but I was going somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5 miles per hour, so the belt was moving at a decent pace.

It all happened in a split second, but my mind was working just as fast. I quickly determined that I was going to fall flat on my face on the moving belt if I didn't do something FAST! I knew I couldn't stop the fall, so it was a matter of saving my face. As I fell, face first, I threw my left shoulder toward the moving belt, so it would hit the belt before my face did. I successfully broke my fall and to the horror of several other gym goers, my body slid down the belt of the treadmill and landed in exactly the same fashion and place as the towel I had just retrieved!

Fortunately, there were few people in the gym at the time, because they all heard me and saw me! It was also fortunate for my ego that there were only women in the gym at the time. Aside from some serious road rash on my left knuckles and shoulder, and a few bruises on my right knee and a bruised ego, I came out of the whole mess rather unscathed. I continued with my workout at couldn't stop laughing at myself for the next several minutes. I still chuckle when I think about the visual those ladies must have had! At least we all walked away with a good story for our friends.