Parking lot bootcamp and the kindness of strangers

For several years, I’ve been working the same person trainer. I met Chad at a gym but happily followed him when he went out on his own. We used to work one-on-one at least once a week, which was great — it made such a difference in my fitness level. Then he started a “Boxing in the Park” group workout. It is more of an aerobic workout and, as a bonus, there are other people to socialize and/or commiserate with.

There are three of us that can be counted on to show up three times a week for Chad’s boxing / interval training workouts. At 6 am every Friday morning, we meet in the parking lot of a local sports complex. We use a corner of the parking lot — super quiet at that time of the morning — as well as the hilly path surrounding a football field.

Chad is a great trainer. Each workout is different; we never get bored (although there are a few exercises that none of us are fond of). Last week, he pulled out a completely new — and unexpected — exercise: we pushed his car across the parking lot! Even with three of us, it was surprisingly hard (who knew the parking sloped!). With Chad at the wheel, we pushed the car one way (downhill) then back (uphill).

On our second pass, a car drove past us heading to section of the parking lot near the pool entrance. This was not unusual but, this time, the car turned around and headed to the back section of the lot where we were. When it got near, the driver leaned out his window and asked if he could help. How nice! He thought we were trying to push start the car. We politely declined and he drove away. We had a great chuckle on what the scene must have looked like: Chad, who is in his late 20s and very fit, sitting in the driver’s seat as three women (all in our 40s) push his car around!