Humor of the Day: All Choked Up on the Treadmill

Who would have thought that so soon after my idea of "A Humor A Day" post, I would encounter a situation that made me laugh.

I went to All Sport today to try to get my legs moving again after the killer spin-class that I took last Thursday. Sometimes, for reasons unknown, I like to have a very tiny piece of gum in my mouth when I run. As was the case today, I had the tiny piece of gum in my mouth and as I was running, the tiny little piece of gum slid half-way down my throat and just sat there. My first reaction was to swallow, but I thought if I did that and the piece of gum got stuck, I may not be able to breathe. And, besides, all I could think about was Philip's college essay in which he said something to the effect that "everyone knows swallowed gum stays in your stomach for 7 (?) years". Yuck.

My next reaction was to cough and hopefully, the tiny little piece of gum would reappear in my mouth (I know -- too much information). I coughed; the gum did not budge. Starting to get a little panicked, but realizing that I was still able to breathe, I decided I could live with swallowed gum in my stomach afterall. So, I tried to swallow the gum again. It did not budge. Finally, I COUGHED (a real, hardy cough) and the tiny little piece of gum reappeared in my mouth.

As I continued to run, I started to laugh to myself and thought how ironic would it be for me to collapse on the treadmill because a piece of gum got stuck in my throat? All these years, whenever I felt like I was going to collapse on the treadmill, I assumed it was because I was running too hard, pushing myself too hard and I was headed for a stroke, heart attack or something of the sort. Never did I think my running career would come to an end because of a tiny, little piece of gum.

In retrospect, I am actually impressed that I didn't miss a beat during this entire encounter. Maybe I really can chew gum and run at the same time :-)