Her long raven mane, held at the top by a bouncy pony tail clip, reached all the way down to the end of her shirt, brushing gently back and forth on top of her shapely garlic cloved halves while swishing the air back and forth like a pendulum, in cadence with her stride, but several milliseconds out of phase. Those tights hugged her lean legs as if poured on like lucky melted chocolate on smooth ice cream, running out of material just below her pulsing heart – shaped calves.

I was always taught not to stare, but what was I supposed to do?  I was running on the treadmill in the row of machines directly behind her and had no other place to look, except the large TV displays on the walls directly ahead that had the sound turned off.  Seems I remember being told that it’s not great to stare at the TV too long either, so, I guess I was stuck.  Either way, there was no way for her to tell where my eyes were fixed.  For safety reasons, it was clearly important for me though to keep my eyes fixed straight ahead, so that I didn’t lose my balance on the treadmill, fall off and land in a heap of sweaty flesh.

And then I realized how awkward it was that I was in this position. Years ago, before the thousands of miles of running did a job on my obedient knees, I would never be seen on a stupid treadmill, especially not in public.  That was just for joggers, and I was a nasty runner – a snow, sleet and rain loving outdoors runner!  Turns out because of my knees I switched to interval lap swimming to maintain fitness, boring as it was, and because of a shoulder injury, I decided to try the treadmill again, just to see, and so far, my  knees weren’t yelling at me!  Looking back, I suppose there were rare occasions that I was on the treadmill, perhaps after a conference in the hotel exercise facility.  I would run 5 to 5 and a half minute miles continuously, and the outside of my shoes seemed to barely touch the treadmill, without much sound, airborne most of the time in full stride.

But now I was a jogger, hopefully not a plodder, but I don’t think I looked that bad. And I knew that airborne was not a word onlookers would use to describe my treadmill workout.  But the heck with that, I was doing it!  And she inspired me.  She was clearly going at a faster pace than I was, and my eyes counted the rhythm of her swishing pendulum and nonstop frog legs.  But I had to keep up with her, or at least, if I couldn’t approach her speed without destructing, I would make it a point to last as long as she did!  My breathing quickened and I found myself hypnotized by her swishing hair, and when I caught myself feeling dizzy from the view, I took a break by looking at the mindless TV for a brutal minute, then back to my inspiration.

The knees were holding up, and I was trying to keep my innate running form and arm carriage, but I was trying to hold on, hoping she would quit soon, so that I could show myself that I kept up with her.   Please stop soon Ms. Raven haired pendulum with the motor legs!

I was sweating now, and so was she, the wet line in the middle of her back sucked her shirt to her skin. Aha!  She was working hard too.  Maybe she could feel the high speed endurance runner behind her and she felt the need for more speed to impress me.  Not. Clearly I was becoming delirious. Suddenly it dawned on me that the sweat dripping into my eyes just didn’t occur when swimming because you were already wet, and what’s more, you couldn’t watch anyone swim when you were swimming, unless they were splashing next to you in the other lane, but either way, if they had long raven hair it would be smashed under a speedo swim cap. So how was I supposed to be inspired when swimming?

Thankfully, she finally slowed down and did her warm down, and so did I, although my warm down was much quicker because I was already slow. She looked back at me briefly on her way out and I tried to act like this was no effort, but I couldn’t hide my heaving breath and red face. She was probably worried I would pass out.

I felt exhilarated when it was over, and that satisfying feeling after a good run again invaded my soul.  I was thankful she inspired me to go a little farther than I wanted originally, and so far the knees were holding up, but I knew I couldn’t do this on a daily basis without pain.  So, I’ll be back in the un – inspired pool and weight room for the remainder of the week, but every now and then, the treadmill will beckon me back for more inspiration and sweat.

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