Originally Posted by
Mark E. Hurling
Well, it finally happened. After so much of the initial hysteria looked to have settled down too.
Today was deadlifts at the Southern Illinois University Rec Center. I forgot my chalk and saw this guy bench pressing with a small zip bag on the floor by him. His flowing gray locks were pulled into a shoulder blade length pony tail and he looked to be in his 50's. It seemed unlikely he'd have any chalk, but I approached him from a distance and asked him if he had any chalk I could borrow. Nope.
So OK, thanks, and off to deadlift. I managed all my singles without chalk happily. He kept watching me, off and on, but then I'm used to that. No one expects to see a geezer deadlifting 325 for singles, especially in the Rec.
Next up was dips. At that point Mr. Ponytail was using the cable crossover in the general proximity of the dip bars. Since I hardly ever want to come between someone and their adoration of themselves in the mirror, I crossed over behind him to get the dip belt. I made the critical error of crossing in front of him with it, since it looked like he was completing his last reps. As I chained up a 45 plate to the belt, he called out, "You need to keep your distance from me!"
I was pretty surprised by that and said "Hey, I'm at least 6 feet from you." He went on at length about me crowding him and I needed to keep back. He moved toward me a step or so during his tirade. I stepped back and told him I was 9 feet from him. I moved to one side and paced off the distance. He didn't like that either, and said I wasn't following the rules. Since he was masked up from his collarbones to the bridge of his nose in one of those turtleneck looking gaiters, I figured he must be referring to my not wearing a mask.
The Rec does not require a mask during exercise. I informed him of that rule and said that since my heart rate was still pounding along at 130 bpm from the deadlifts, I was not about to have one on with any attendant CO2 buildup.
He said he was going to talk to a manager. "Good idea, you weasly tattletale. Let's both go, I want to complain about your aggressive attitude!" The kids working the desk started laughing when Mr. Ponytail came up to whine. I told them he wasn't joking and neither was I. After listening to him lie about how I started yelling at him and crowding him, I told the kids my name and where I'd be doing dips. "You can listen to him tattle while I keep lifting."
As I was finishing my dips one of the young desk ladies asked me for my side of the story, which I related. She said not to worry, but she had to write a report because of his complaint. No problem. Contact me if you need me later.
I finally got confronted by a mask nazi. What a day.