The "Good Treadmills".

It is a well known fact that at our gym in Cairo (Samia Allouba), there are only 2 treadmills that anyone would willingly want to use. In fact, our need for these treadmills has caused many disagreements with other club members who try to bud in front of us without waiting their turn.

There are about 7 treadmills in all, but 5 of them are a recipe for disaster, with the guarantee of sore knees and shin splints! This morning Lindsay and I had planned to complete our longest pre-race run to date, a whopping 16 kilometres, and so the "good treadmills" were a must.

"We need to arrive early tomorrow morning to ensure we get the good treadmills" said Lindsay a few minutes before bed. "What time do you want to head to the gym then?" I countered. The conversation that followed was back and forth banter based on the opening hours of our gym on weekends. Lindsay and I couldn't agree on a time, but felt 7am seemed reasonable enough to show up and knab the treadmills. What kind of a gym would open any later than that?

We were the first to arrive, we spotted our treadmills and they were open, there was a worker inside the glass door.... BUT IT WAS LOCKED!!!!!! Although the gym conveniently opens at 5am during the week, apparently gyms don't open until 8am on the weekends in Egypt.

With nowhere to go, and more importantly a need to hold our spot to get the treadmills, we waited the hour until the gym finally opened. During this time, we developed a more elaborate "clench" plan: Lindsay would go straight to the treadmills and place water bottles in each (read: TAKEN) and I would go to the front desk, check-in, and grab towels. If this plan didn't work, we were willing to battle the three members that showed up at 7:45.

The good news, we got our treadmills, had a great run, and actually finished 16km in 1hour 37 minutes at a pace of approximately a ten minute mile...