Today, for the first time in the longest time I can remember, I arrived at the gym at 6:45am. I’ve been going to the Upper East Side Crunch for the last several months, but I haven’t gone this early until now. With my new job, I want to get to the office earlier (yes, this is what I do now that I actually care about my job), which means I need to get to the gym earlier.

So, you can imagine my absolute horror when, for the first time in almost eight years of having a New York City gym membership, I arrived to the cardio area to find that every single cardio machine was occupied. The entire row of treadmills was full of people running; even the ellipticals and rowing machines were all taken. I went to fill my water bottle and came back, and lucky for me, two ellipticals were freed up, so I grabbed one of them immediately. It wasn’t ideal, as I’d prefer to use a treadmill, but this was better than waiting in the mini line that started to form for the treadmills in the next few minutes. There was no way I was going to wait in a line for a treadmill this morning — or any morning, for that matter.

Upper East Side residents… total over-achievers. What time did these people arrive at the gym, 6 or 6:30am?!!!!!! I really need to get my butt there earlier now.