Alert to runners: New invention allows you to run inside!

Running inside? Could it be true? Yes!

Last week's rain hampered my morning run (and by "hampered" I mean entirely prevented).

Call it a fragile constitution, call it a cop-out, either way I'm just not ready to run in the rain. Ask me again in the summer when rain is considered refreshing rather than pneumonia-inducing.

Anyway, a comment from Holly that morning caught my attention:

Ran 5 miles on my treadmill before going to work.

What is this "treadmill" and where would I find one?

Who knew that a recent invention, referred to by users as a "gym," enables people to exercise inside! It's raining? Who cares! Blizzard conditions? Won't stop me!

And these running machines - treadmills - get you running without ever going anywhere. Boring? Some may say so. But speaking as someone who's found themselves 2 miles from home and completely exhausted, I like the idea of being able to just step off the machine when the energy runs out.

The problem with that: it's way too easy to just step off the machine.

Then again, cable television is an excellent motivator. Get your run in while you glean useless information from the Discovery Channel (such as the evolution of the toilet and myths about Thomas Crapper, which I watched in its entirety).

Three cheers for indoor running when the whether stinks!

And a solemn goodbye to one more excuse going down the tubes.