Hold On

"Be careful with this treadmill... you might want to hold on. I was running on it last time and it just suddenly stopped. You really might want to hold on."

I admit it. I hadn't exactly been to the gym in a while. Busy schedule, you might say. You know your life is crazy when you don't get home till 8 pm every night.
So when I noticed a clearing in my schedule, I took it. I couldn't wait to work out. Strangely enough, once I get motivated and get my happy self there, I love working out. I love to put on the headphones, turn on my ipod and run. I can drift and think about nothing, or rehash the day if I need to. It was my time to just veg, or think, or whatever I needed to do.

I had already run a mile and a half when she came up to the treadmill right next to me. I was lost in my world. I didn't even know it when she first started talking to me. I had to pull off the headphones quickly and say, "Excuse me? Are you talking to me?"
And there it was... the warning. "Careful with this treadmill... you might want to hold on. It stops suddenly. It did it to me the other day and I nearly hit my head on the bar. Watch out!"
Uh, ok.
thanks.

So the whole rest of the run I wondered, second-guessed, worried. Would the treadmill stop at a moment's notice? Would I need to hold on? Why hadn't this happened before? Would I have rather not known?

Sometimes there are things that happen, things people say or do, some things that really hurt... those things I would have just rather not known. I would have rather have been running my run, singing my songs, and enjoying life. But now I have to hold on for dear life to the bar and hope beyond hope that nothing will happen to me, or people I love.