In July we saw two tragedies in our area during triathlons only one week apart. First there was the death of a 32-year-old man in the New York City Triathlon on July 20. The following week 52-year-old John Hobgood of Princeton Junction, N.J., died in the New Jersey State Triathlon.
When this issue hits the
gyms and stores, the story that inspired this column will be old news, but I’m
writing about it anyway because I think it raises some really important issues
in the active community.
For those of you who missed it entirely, the quick version of the story is that one man assaulted another in a spin class because he was making too much noise with grunts and shouts during the class. It went to court and the aggressor got off because the jury couldn’t prove for certain that the injuries were caused by his actions. That’s it in a nutshell.
I have been in spin classes where people are whooping and screaming and grunting, and I will confess that I find it annoying and distracting. But because spinning is the kind of workout where you get into a zone, my zone involves blocking out the world around me and I can manage to ignore them without much trouble. I talked to a man this past weekend at an event who has been bodybuilding for almost 20 years, and he sees the other side of this: that for many of these bodybuilding types, the grunt that goes along with the intense muscle tightening is a necessary part of their workouts, and they find modern, spa-like health clubs exclude them and their needs by whitewashing the sweat and strain that is true to “pumping iron.”
At the end of the day this is a matter of etiquette, but who is to say what the rules should be? With 30 or 40 people in a spin class (and being in New York we spend all day on top of one another anyway), we should all try to be respectful of one another’s space and needs. The beauty of a city like New York is that we have options for where we work out. There are more chains and independent clubs than you can count: ones that cater to the spa set, the triathletes, the hardcore lifters, women-only, the yogis…and on it goes. We should all take the time to find workout facilities that suit our equipment and emotional needs to up the odds that we’ll be happier once we get into it. But wherever you end up, stop and think before you act, be respectful and listen to one another.
In the spirit of bringing people together I want to point all of you to the Human Race, a giant undertaking by Nike to get as many people across the world running at the same time. They want to pit cities against one another starting this month to see who can log the most training miles for the event on 8/31/08. New York’s 10K event is taking place on Randall’s Island and we need to show the rest of the world what a running town this really is. Check our website for the ticker that’s logging miles with runners using the Nike+ system, so make sure you get yourself hooked up with whatever you need to keep track of your miles and get ready for the human race.
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Recent deaths make people wonder if they should keep running. 
