Gym Equipment

I had a thought earlier at the gym today. Not necessarily regarding anything fitness or sport related, but one of the individual. What do people think about when they're trapped on the treadmill/elliptical/etc? Maybe they run off to LaLa Land for distraction or simply watch the tv in front of them. The iPod music only distracts you for so long before it just becomes a beat to pace yourself to. It's always strange how my mind wanders in order to cope with working out. It can go anywhere from "just concentrate on the picture on the wall" to "pretend you're in a race with all these other people."
I hate the urge to look over at other people. It makes me feel awkward when others do it to me. Almost like asking someone how they did on their test really. This spawns the need to compare yourself to them.....perhaps I could say that we all have moments of reverting to selfish childhood here.
Comparing, imagioning, wandering. We're all in the same place but not talking to each other and avoiding eye contact. Looking someone in the eye is too personal here, not sure why. Probably because you're sweaty and don't want the attention drawn to how your shirt looks wet or your makeup has run just enough to make you look exhausted.
I could imagine that depending on the gym-goer, their thoughts may wander in different directions than mine. The musclehead guy, the OC housewife prancing around, the heavy guy working his ass off, tiny asian woman, etc. All could have drastically different scenarios playing out as they work out.
Add needing to wear glasses into this equation and it becomes stranger. I don't work out with them on so my vision becomes a pitfall. At times I end up trying to figure out what the closed captioning on the big tv's are saying. That's a doomed battle for me haha. Reading the other guy's shirt is hard enough! The worst is recognizing people at the gym--or them recognizing me rather. I can't see the detail of someone's face til they're 4 feet away.
Anyways, it's been a long day. Goodnight.