The Diary of Fiona J McNally

Trapped on the Travelator

The other day at the gym I glanced across at the woman next to me on the treadmill and marvelled at the look of complete detachment on her face. I had been struggling with the boredom of the treadmill for ten minutes or so and it was amazing to me to see that some people are capable of just mentally switching off.

For me the tread mill experience is akin to those travel walkways you sometimes encounter at very large airports or car parks. They seem to yawn on in front of you like an endless conveyor belt of human traffic. Jet lagged as you often are on these contraptions, and weighed down with a couple of over sized bags, it is usually impossible to break into a run and therefore end the journey more quickly.

As I looked at the expression on my fellow gym patron I imagined that she would find the airport walkway no problem at all and that she would simply drift off into mental oblivion until she could step onto terra firma. For my part I was cursing the fact that the tv screens are positioned behind you at the gym and the music is never anything that inspires you to make the mircale mile. All I ever want to do is get off. The mental inertia of thumping away on a moving surface really holds no joy for me at all. It becomes a psychological endurance test. I wonder if others feel this way?

posted by Fiona McNally @ 10/04/2004 05:07:00 pm