Night Buffs
Like the patrons of a certain Boston tavern immortalized in a TV series, the regulars here know each other’s names, are possessive about their favorite spots and get rowdier as the night goes on.
This isn’t a bar--it’s a gym.
“But it’s just like Cheers,” says Ray Gregg, 51, of Garden Grove as he pedals briskly on a stationary bike. “We’ve got our Norms and our Cliff Clavens. It’s the whole nine yards.”
The management at 24-Hour Fitness Sport in Costa Mesa says an increasing number of people want to work out at unconventional times.
“It’s not a 9-to-5 society anymore. People work all kinds of hours and have all kinds of lives. We’re accommodating that,” supervisor Lance May says.
“We get a lot of people who just have odd work hours--nurses, students, firemen, cops. They’re still fired up when they get off work, so they want to work out.”
The midnight crew is a mix of those folks and habitual night owls. Both groups say they like the easy availability of equipment and the lack of a crowd.
“There’s quite a few of us from the restaurant who come here to wind down,” says Jeff Alexander, 27, of Costa Mesa, a waiter at a nearby steakhouse. “Instead of tossing and turning in bed, we’re here doing something productive.”
Alexander hits the machines at least four times a week and wants to become a personal trainer. But he draws a distinction between himself and those he calls the Muscle Heads.
“I eat cheeseburgers and pizzas when I want,” he says. “I’m not a health nut. I’m here to keep fit instead of being a bodybuilder.”
Michael Morahan III, 39, of Newport Beach says he was a fitness fanatic in the ‘80s but dropped out. As he gets older, he’s focusing on his health again.
“At my age, instead of going out drinking and partying, I can come here a couple of nights a week and work out,” says Morahan, a brown belt in taekwondo. “I find I can lift heavier weights without anyone around me. I can focus into the Zen of the moment.”
After the midnight crowd drifts away from the treadmills, stair machines and bikes, the gym is quieter, but the lull is temporary. At 3:30 a.m., the early risers start arriving.
“They’re like clockwork,” says receptionist Sheri Macauley, who staffs the front desk from 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. “I don’t even have to check my watch. Right at 3:30 the first one rolls in. And it’s a steady stream after that.”
The predawn regulars include Loren Hatfield, 31, of Orange, a fashion merchandiser whose penchant for running miles nonstop on the treadmill earns her the nickname “Energizer Bunny.”
At precisely 4 a.m., she jumps on the treadmill and sets out at a heart-thumping pace of 6.3 miles an hour. “It’s warped,” she admits with a smile. “We all laugh about it. We know there’s something a little different about us. But I’m a Type-A personality anyway.”
She’ll be here for the next 2 1/2 hours, running and lifting weights. She hasn’t been able to persuade her husband to join her, but she says he has learned to live with her gym habit.
“I used to work out twice a day, but my husband bought me a treadmill at home, so now I only come here once a day,” she says. “He thinks I’m crazy, but I was doing this before we got married.”
She interrupts herself to give a quick nod and wave: “There’s Norm.”
That would be Norm Perez, 35, of Costa Mesa, an architect and admitted workaholic who tears himself away from his job to work out at the gym. Stepping onto the treadmill beside Hatfield’s--his regular spot--he says, “We’ve all gotten to know each other. Everyone has their own machine. When you don’t show up, everybody notices.”
Sheepishly, he confesses that he skipped the day before.
“So what’s your excuse?” Hatfield demands.
“I was working in the office and just laid my head on the table and fell asleep,” he says.
“Yeah, right,” she says sarcastically--then they both laugh.
Indeed, good-natured gibes and laughter fill the room with camaraderie at this hour.
“It’s our group therapy,” says Jewel Beller, 54, of Newport Beach. An in-home care provider, she squeezes in exercise time while her patients are still asleep.
“You have your friends and you get to see them every day,” says Beller, who has been a regular for nine years. “If you have a problem, you bring it in and let it out.”
Macauley at the front desk confirms that. “It’s like their home away from home,” she says. “They’re like a whole community.”