Today I dismantled my old treadmill.

The old TM wasn’t working well any longer and it was time to get a new one.  

I ran on this treadmill for 12+ years. 

In that span of time, I covered about 11,100 miles in total. 

A majority of those miles came on the treadmill in the quiet hours of the early morning before work.  Others came on cold days, on rainy days, or on evenings when I didn’t want to run outside in the dark.

I put in a lot of great long runs on the TM.  

In February 2013, I did a ten miler, two 15 milers, and an 18 miler on the mill.  

In March 2013, I did another 18 miler and then a 20-miler on it. 

On April of that year, a month before the New Jersey Marathon, I ran a 4:13:54 marathon on my treadmill.  

Yeah, I used to run crazy miles on that machine.  It served me well, absolutely.  

As I look back at my old training logs, those weren’t the only crazy long runs I ran on the treadmill.

I did a 20-miler on it in August 2014.

I did 15 mile runs on the TM in January, February, and April 2015.

And then in August 2015, I did yet another 20-mile run on it.  

It’s crazy to look back at what a strong runner I used to be.  

I don’t remember being this motivated, at all, but in 2016, I ran at least 10 miles and sometimes up to 15 at least once a week on the mill, from January into July.  It seems I only skipped a few weeks to do a long hike or, occasionally, run outside.

In September of that year, I did 20-miles on back-to-back Saturdays on the treadmill as I prepared for the NYC Marathon.  

I could go on and on…

Runners, marathoners, at least, would understand.  (I think…)

Those are all happy memories.  

But, like me, the treadmill got old.  The last few times I ran on it, a few weeks ago, there was a loud bang ever few steps that would also result in the belt slipping.

With thousands and thousands of miles of pounding (i’m not really a graceful runner) and being probably a decade out of warranty, it was time to say goodbye to a machine that served as my running partner for a long time.  

My new treadmill comes tomorrow.

I am older, and slower, but no less strong, even if I won’t be running 20-milers or a marathon in my exercise room any longer.

I’ll miss my old machine.  It served me well.  

But I am looking forward to some good strong runs again.