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Walking Through Monmouth University’s MAC Building

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Wow. What a piece of work the new Multipurpose Activity Center at Monmouth University turned out to be. I had the opportunity to really take a good walk through it at some point early yesterday evening and it is remarkable. If any of you reading this are Monmouth University alumni like I am, then trust me – you would not expect to find such a high quality facility nestled on to the campus. The basketball court is absolutely amazing. I’m not sure if I was supposed to do it or not, but I took a little stroll on the sidelines of the court and it was really a great spot.

I’ve been in the building before in the Fitness Center when I signed up for a membership, so that area wasn’t new. However, I did find the elevator and take it up to the third floor where I was able to look at (though not get in) the 10 box suites that the MAC has to offer. They looked great from the outside. And looking down on the second floor track was pretty cool, too. The entire arena looked great from the third floor, as did looking out over the football field from inside of the MAC. They really did a great job designing a little balcony that you can watch football games off of while you’re inside of the MAC. Of course, you’re still looking at a football field that is trumped by many of the high school stadiums in New Jersey, but that’s another story!

In fact, I like the building so much that I’m probably going to buy season tickets for the upcoming men’s basketball season. It’s not that I’m any big fan of basketball (though I used to watch the Chicago Bulls in the 1990’s) or any big supporter of Monmouth University (hard to support an institution that ruined your graduation ceremony and which assisted in causing you to owe six figures in student loan debt). However, like I said in an earlier post on this blog, I did feel a sense of pride in seeing that building go up; a sense of pride which was only elevated after I walked around the MAC.

So why not get season tickets? I’m sure that the first season of basketball in the MAC is going to be great!

Landmark Day at the Gym Today

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Today was a landmark day at the gym for me because it marks a milestone in my renewed interest in working out. My workout this afternoon marked six days in a row that I’ve gone to the gym. Sure, it’s no big thing and there are many people reading this who go to the gym religiously everyday and that’s awesome. However, I went back through my Google Calendar and it seems that the last time that I worked out for even five days in a row was May 2007 (and only two of those days were actually spent at a gym). Today I beat my May 2007 numbers.
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The Ocean Fitness Center Closes Up Shop

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According to the Asbury Park Press, the Ocean Fitness Company closed their doors on October 3rd. This was news to some of the gym-goers (and to me) for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is their 20 years of continuous operations and the recent multi-million dollar renovations at the site. From the Asbury Park Press:

Ocean Fitness Center, a health club on Route 35 at Deal Road, has closed its doors.

The club’s owner, The Fitness Company, posted the news in a letter on the door. It thanked patrons for 20 years of membership.

“We apologize for the sudden announcement and the closing of the club,” the note states.

This is weird for so many reasons. First of all, the Ocean Fitness Center was located in a great building and was the only gym in the area that had a full-size pool and jacuzzi. Believe it or not there are a bunch of us who live less than a mile from the Atlantic Ocean and still demanded to have a pool at our health club! Probably has something to do with those bitter freezing months each year…

I was a member of The Fitness Company from November 2003 through May 2006. I quit the gym at that time because the renovation of the swimming pool was supposed to be a quick, 3-month project in the summer of 2005 and it actually wound up taking until last February to complete. I did, however, rejoin the gym for the summer of 2007 and got some good use out of the pool before my membership expired in September. I chose not to renew.

This is striking news because I was just planning on going back to the gym this week and setting up a time to restart my membership (likely in the middle of December after I’m done teaching for the semester and I get back from a trip to Miami). It’s weird that they’re closed.

There are other gyms in the area to choose from including Workout World, Newberry Fitness, Jersey Shore Fitness, Gold’s Gym, Pearl Street Gym, and Edge Health and Fitness Academy (among many others). None of them really strike me as a place that I’d want to join right away, though I used to be a member at Gold’s Gym and if their prices are still as high as they were last year, then there’s no way I’d go back there again.

In a best case scenario, another gym would step in and take over the vacant building where the Ocean Fitness Center once occupied (and maybe change the dreary interior from that urine yellow to a bright white). Anyway, I’ll be keeping an eye out for gym membership deals in the next few months – let me know if you find any!