Ryan McLeod has apologised after breaking Loughborough's Alter-G Treadmill. The machine, which costs in excess of £40,000, has been damaged beyond economical repair after the 13:58 man attempted to recreate "rainy conditions" in the lab. It is thought that he and Nick McCormick came up with the idea after bemoaning the lack of preparation that they were getting for the English summer. "The fact is," reasoned McLeod, "it will probably pour it down at the AAAs and when you're injured you never get that feel of rain on your face." McCormick explained how whilst one of them trained on the Alter-G the other threw buckets of water on the runner's head. "Sure, it wasn't ideal" said the Morpeth man, "but it is a jolly sight better than being surprised when it starts to rain for real."
The pair have maintained that they "did not know" that the treadmill was not designed for such experimentation. McLeod said, "at college, they're always telling us to use our initiative. Well I think that this is genius. If only we had known that it would break the damn treadmill." The first sign of trouble came when McCormick went from running at 50% body weight to 95% without any warning. "I was worried then," conceded the 28:57 10k man, "but Ryan said that always happened so we carried on." It was only when sparks started flying from the machine's control panel that they realised there was a serious problem. Unfortunately, McLeod's attempts to "dry out" the treadmill with a hair dryer proved futile. "That was a shame that was," sighed the Geordie, "we would have got away with it otherwise."
George Gandy, Loughborough's Director of Athletics is said to be seething at the gaffe and will deal "strongly" with the pair when he returns from the World Cross Country Championships. Gandy said that he "had not ruled out" revoking the pair's campus parking privileges. "It's a serious mistake and they both need punishing" said the guru from a Polish night-club, "if they can't be trusted with a treadmill then I don't think we can trust them with cars."