In honor of yesterday’s post about exercise equipment, today I present, the world’s largest treadmill.  Apparently this huge piece of gear was originally designed to be used by Maggie, an elephant at the Alaska Zoo.  Being the only elephant in Alaska, Maggie was lonely.  So what did the zookeepers do?  They had a treadmill custom created for her to run on.  This worked about as well as can be expected (Maggie wanted nothing to do with it).  So what to do?  A depressed pachyderm who doesn’t want to exercise and a $100,000 treadmill that nobody is using.  First the Alaska Zoo got Maggie a new home at an animal sanctuary in Northern California.  To which I say, good on yer Maggie.  Way to hold out the big prize.  And then The Alaska Zoo did what we all do with our old treadmills–tried to sell it on Craigslist.  But given the fact that this treadmill is 5 feet wide and 22 feet long, there weren’t a lot of takers.  (Can you imagine how many hand washable pieces of lingerie you could dry on that thing?)

But this treadmill story has a happy ending.  It was acquired by four-time Iditarod winner Martin Buser.  He brought the behemoth to his place of business (Buser’s Happy Trails Kennes) and planned to modify the machine to train his teams of of racing dogs.  Buser thinks he can easily train an entire team of sled dogs at one time using the treadmill and is excited to use the treadmill to help track scientific data on his prized pups.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmOCDoZwcEI]

And here’s the stats:

Width: 5 ft.

Length: 22ft.

Weight: Over 10,000 pounds

Conclusions:

1.  When you’re lovesick and blue, do NOT accept a treadmill.  Hold out for a vacation somewhere warm. 

2.  One of the hardest things to shift in the universe is a used treadmill.

3.  The World’s Largest Treadmill weighs more than me.