What were they thinking?

So Drexel built a new addition to their existing gym. I was really excited about this addition because it includes an indoor track, real squash courts, a climbing wall, and a new weight/exercise area (the old area was a hot sweatbox of disease).

On January 4 it partially opened - the new weight/exercise area and indoor track are open. The indoor track is pretty nice, three lanes, each lap is 1/10 of a mile. Except that if each lap is 1/10 of a mile, then I ran 2 miles in under 14 minutes. Not tooooo incredible a time. However, I haven't run that fast since my early years of college, and certainly not after coming off a high ankle sprain! Turns out it is actually 1/12 of a mile.

TRACK = FAIL.

So then I decided to try the weight room/exercise area. The first thing I noticed was that because one wall of the building is angled, the exercise machines and weights on either side of the area get closer and closer together towards the end of the building. Annoying. Additionally, there's only one water fountain, not in a centralized location.

More money seemed to be spent on the excessive big screen televisions and personal TVs on the treadmills than into the design of this building. The area is completely depressing. And the squat racks are ridiculous. They have a permanent metal bar about 6 inches off the floor that makes doing any sort of power clean impossible. And because there are only three squat racks with multiple functions, most of the time there are triangle men doing some sort of shrug or arm exercise on a bench in the middle of the rack. There's no place in the main area to stretch or do abs - you'll have to go down to the second floor.

WEIGHT ROOM = FAIL.

I can't even describe how uncomfortable I feel in this gym. The entrance to the building is inconveniently located and it is ugly from the outside as well.

REC CENTER = FAIL.