The treadmill with a catch

Lately I've been getting a lot of my running done on a treadmill.  This isn't necessarily by choice, it's just the most time-efficient way for me to get it done.  What I mean is, I can get in a run at work, or while on vacation without taking away a significant amount of time from my family.

Recently, I had the pleasure of running on a special treadmill.  The Wife and I were running next to each other.  From the first look at it, it looked like a decent enough treadmill.  It was a few years old, but no big deal.  The Wife was on a far older treadmill, so I thought I wouldn't have anything to worry about.  I began with a short 2 minute walk, followed by an increase of speed to a 6.0.  As I sped up, the belt on the treadmill seemed to catch a few times.  I though, no big deal.  Maybe there was something weird going on, or maybe the treadmill hadn't been used in a while and all of the cobwebs were being torn apart!  After the running interval was over, we slowed down and walked for a few minutes before speeding back up.  This time, when I sped back up, the same thing happened.  This time, it was with almost every step!  The treadmill seemed to be getting stuck on something, causing a slight hesitation with each step.  It's a pretty odd feeling to be running and having an unknown hesitation with almost every step.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any other treadmills to choose from, so I just stuck with it.  I began to view it as an obstacle that I was overcoming and would somehow make me better.  In all reality, it probably could have injured me had I fallen down.  But I didn't, so it's all good!  The other odd thing that happened was as The Wife and I were running, there was an older man who was on a stationary bike.  When he was finished, he got up to leave the room and turned off the lights!  What the heck!  Neither The Wife nor I wanted to do anything about it though and just continued to run in a semi-lit workout room.

Other than that, it was a pretty successful run.  The Wife was able to run at a faster pace than she normally does, and I think she actually found out that she likes treadmill running (but will never actually admit it).  So we might be in the market for a decent home treadmill soon!