Today’s Run:  Rest Day

My YMCA is well loved.  The equipment is not shiny and new.  It is used.  It is loved.  It is wonderful.

I lift at the downtown YMCA in Columbus, Mississippi.  It is an old building.  They used to have dormitories on the upper floors that are now used for offices.   (Too many vagrants.  Too bad.)  Now, it boasts three weight rooms (Circuit, Nautilus, and Free Weight) and a zillion cardio rooms with treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, you name it.  Two basketball courts, indoor track and an indoor pool.  It has it all and I love every square inch of it.

I choose to lift in the free weight room because I am just too little (read:  short) for the “Machines”.  And because I love the feel of a 55 pound dumbbell in my hands.

I am the only woman in the weight room.  When I first started there, the “guys” would roll their eyes and think, “Oh great.”.  I had disturbed their domain.  Their “Man Cave”, so to speak.

It took a while to “earn my stripes” in the weight room.  For the longest time, they would not look at me let alone talk to me.  Now, I cannot get them to be quiet.  I am one of the “guys” and that is the highest praise.  (Plus, I can do more weight on the leg press than any of them~so they know not to mess with me.)

The “Y” is my home away from home.  A place to exercise with fellow lifters, gather tips on lifting and gather lots of gossip!  I love my “Y”!