At the gym

After work this afternoon, I went to the Z Center for some much-needed running and lifting. As I was walking into the main part of the gym, a couple of guys stopped me to pitch their "Bike for Charity" program. All I had to do as a volunteer was bike for 10 minutes, and for every mile I biked, they would donate $1 to the charity and pay me $1. It seemed like a reasonable offer (although I couldn't imagine I could bike a respectable number of miles in only 10 minutes), except when I asked about the charities that would receive the money. The guy told me he would roll a 4-sided die (do these exist?) and the number that came up would dictate which charity would get the money. I was still on board at this point, until he showed me the list and I saw that the last charity was the NRA. I am not interested in raising money for Charlton Heston and the National Rifle Association. However, I also wasn't interested in confronting this guy about it, so I begged off by explaining that I had just signed up for a treadmill slot. It's a very handy excuse actually - I used it to get out of filling out some sophomore's survey a couple weeks ago. I dunno... I'm not opposed to raising money for charitable causes or participating in a survey that could improve the athletic facilities at MIT, but whatever happened to just being able to go to the gym to work out?