The Boy Who Wore Boat Shoes

17⎜The Gym

17⎜The Gym

           “Four-ninety-nine,” I heaved, pushing my body up with only the use of my arms, “five hundred.” I sighed, getting out of the position most commonly associated with either having sex or doing pushups (I had been doing the latter for the past thirty minutes), and found myself rolling onto my back. The familiar scent of sweat mixed with metal and cleaning solution wafted into my nostrils, and I smiled a bit.

           It was just past six in the morning, and being the completely obsessive individual that I happened to be at times, I had spent the past hour in the gym, like I did most days. The nice thing about going to the gym at five in the morning was that there was practically no one there, and anyone who was there was actually serious about working out. I had become accustomed to the other handful of people that joined me at the absurd hour to improve their personal fitness.

           There was the girl who always wore hot pink and cheetah print, and though she was short and appeared pretty unassuming, she was definitely one of the most dedicated workoutaholics that I had ever encountered. She liked weights, and usually spent at least half the time working on her biceps. In comparison to me, her arms looked like twigs, but in relation to just about anyone else on the planet, she had pretty great muscles.

           Aside from Hot Pink Cheetah Print Girl, there was also Robby The Runner. I had met Robby a few times in the locker room, and we introduced ourselves briefly. He was a pretty nice dude, but neither of us had any interest in talking to one another at five in morning, so didn’t. Robby’s forte in the gym was the treadmill. He would literally spend two hours a day (or more) just running. Personally, if I had been into running then I probably would’ve just utilized the campus as a place to express my leg muscles, but to each his own. Robby was pretty chill, and liked to run.

           Then there was Bob The Bodybuilder (I was pretty sure that his actual name wasn’t even close to Bob, but it was an alliteration, so it was okay). As implied by his name bestowed by my brain before any logical hour, he was a bodybuilder. Like, this dude had muscles that made mine look paper thin—which they most certainly weren’t. The guy was jacked, and made my workout routine seem like it was fit for a kindergartener. He was pretty intense, so we had yet to have a heart-to-heart or even speak to each other. To be perfectly honest, he pretty much scared the shit out of me.

           Swimmer Sandy was another regular, but she usually came before even me—like, at four-ish, which I thought was crazy, even if I was the one only going an hour later than that. The gym was in the same building as Stanford’s pools, so Sandy (just like Bob, I was pretty sure that her name wasn’t Sandy) usually went swimming for a while, and then at about six or so would come into the workout room with wet hair and sweats on, just using a treadmill for a while, right alongside Robby. 

           Though he didn’t come every day, Phil was an inconsistent regular. With his oxymoronic status, he came every few days, and didn’t disturb the usual peace of the gym. Phil was a big guy, but unlike Bob, he wasn’t all muscle. The guy was trying to lose weight, and from what I could tell, he was doing an okay job. He usually just came in at five and left at six, staying only a mere hour, but we all accepted him, nonetheless.

           The seventh member (me included) of our Unofficial Workout Before Dawn Club (UWBDC) was Nelson. I wasn’t really sure if Nelson was his first name or his last name, but I never bothered to ask, because I didn’t really care. Nelson was like Hot Pink Cheetah Print Girl and me—he did a variety of things, instead of just sticking to one. He was pretty ripped, a little thinner than me, and I could always hear these heavy rock beats blasting from his headphones as he went through his daily routine. I had learned that he was a senior, and used to play soccer back in the day. Like the majority of people who had the lack of sense to come to the gym before the sun rose, Nelson was a pretty cool dude.