Sad Monday

I'd started to write a post this morning about my crappy weekend, how I didn't buy the things I needed to, how I haven't packed, the terrible toothache thats been keeping me awake, etc. But then I found out that the guy who used to run the gym died this weekend. He was dismissed a few weeks ago following a complaint and sadly had a fatal car accident at the weekend.

The things that felt all consuming this morning when I woke up, now seem so insignificant. He was so full of life and helped so many people at our gym acheive amazing goals through his encouragement, enthusiasm and drive. The gym hasn't been the same since he left 3 weeks ago. The attendance at the classes has dropped off, lunchtimes aren't as busy and its a bit like a ghost town.

People wanted to go to the gym because he made it worthwhile. If you were on the treadmill taking it easy, he'd yell across the gym to speed it up... or he'd get the 'foam roller' (which he would poke you with). Our body pump classes were like 'Body Pump on Speed', we'd be jumping up and down off those Reebok steps as if our life depended on it. At the end of the classes when our legs were literally about to give up on us, he'd get us to 'sit against the wall'. We'd all sit there in silence, legs aching, knees shaking, not making eye contact with him, hoping that no one else in the class would let us down, just hoping that you'd impressed him enough in the class that he'd let you go first... and hoping that you'd not been the worst in the class and would be told to do frog jumps before leaving. Every session he gave 110%, even if we were only giving 90% he'd push us until we gave him back what we needed to get the results we all wanted.

There are certain people that you meet in your life that have a profound effect on it. He was one of those people. We had talked about my long term goals for my body, I'm just sad I won't be able to share my results with him when I get there. RIP James.