Thursday, December 11, 2014

Shout-out to the humble hat

What do you see here?
Three hats.

You see them, too?

Yeah. I left all three at home before heading out on my run. It's 29 degrees out there tonight with a 19-degree (F) windchill. Not terribly cold by Michigan standards, but the wind was really blowing and I thought my ears were going to fall off. They may have. I still can't feel them.

Between the other runner in the house (my favorite 15-year-old) and I, we have five running hats. Most of them are conveniently located in a clear plastic shoe organizer hanging in the coat closet next to the front door.

The same organizer that also holds my ChapStick, headphones, gloves and reusable hand warmers. All of which I grabbed on the way out.

I could tell right away that I'd made a tactical mistake. And, yet, I ran away from the house instead of running back in to grab a hat.

It won't be so bad, I told myself. I'll warm up when I start running.

While my neighbors' Christmas-light-show-programmed-to-blaring-music-that-sounds-like-the-ice-cream-truck did distract me for a few moments, the rest of my 30-minute run/walk tonight was pretty miserable.

My core was warm and my hands were toasty (even without using the hand-warmers). But my head and ears were suffering.

There's a saying in Puerto Rico that comes to mind: "El vago trabaja doble." Loosely translated, it means the lazy man works twice as hard.

Whoever came up with that was probably a runner.

Mental note: Grab a hat! Or at least, turn around and grab a hat if you forgot it.

In the meantime, if you see my ears, can you please ship them to Lansing, Mich.?

Do you ever forget a key piece of gear? Do you ever go back for it? Seriously, have you seen my ears?


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