My Favorite Running Hat

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.*

The above picture is my favorite running hat. I don’t always wear a hat when I run but when I do, this is the only one I ever wear. It has kept my face from sunburn on hot summer days, and it has kept the raindrops from my eyes at the Denver Half Marathon.

It’s true, the hat has seen better days, but I still remember fondly the day we first met. You were perched on a hat rack at Quincy Mah-ket in downtown Boston. I spotted you looking at me from across the room and I could tell that you wanted to buy me a drink if only you weren’t so shy, or inanimate. I approached you cautiously at first, wary of having my heart broken again by a beautiful hat that wasn’t available in the right size. After a few minutes of playful flirting, I purchased you and watched as the cashier stuffed you carelessly in a plastic gift shop bag. I didn’t take you out and wear you home because I was having a particularly fantastic hair day and you didn’t complain. Not once. It was like you got me right from the start.

And while I have since bought another newer, redder hat that I wear on formal occasions (sweat stains just don't go with my suit and tie) you’re still my go-to hat in running and sweaty situations.

Not only has my hat shielded my delicate features from the elements, but it can also be used in place of a Garmin to determine how far I’ve run. I simply remove the hat and check the sweat stains. Someday perhaps the sweat stains will go all the way to the top, indicating that we’ve completed our first marathon together. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And to think that my wife wanted to throw you away and usher in a new era.

*You might have just witnessed the worst ever use of Ol’ Bill Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter the Great Bike Giveaway on the post below.
P.P.S. Yes, you can expect to see that previous postscript appended to the end of every post between now and next Thursday.

Winter Gear

The end of daylight savings time is depressing. The days feel shorter, it’s colder outside, it’s harder to see when I’m out running, if I didn’t know any better I’d think that I was dying. Of course I’m not dying, at least not any more than the rest of you are. In these cold and dark times I need some advice. What do you wear when you go running in the cold darkness of winter?

Viper has a couple of posts about good reflective wear and how to stay warm. I’m really liking the Reflecto-Vest idea but I need some more ideas on warm gear to run in before I end up freezing. No one wants to see Vanilla, ice. Wow, look at that - the jokes really do write themselves (not very well, but by themselves nonetheless).

I currently own one warm running shirt that wicks away sweat and keeps me warm, the one you see in the picture above. I wear the ski mask thing over my nose so that it doesn’t freeze and so I cannot smell my one and only winter running shirt, which often goes running multiple times between washes. If you’re running the 8 on the 8th, you should be glad it’s a virtual race because you won't have to smell my running shirt unless you live in Colorado or maybe Nebraska or Kansas if it’s windy.

When that shirt is in the wash I usually go with an Under Armor heat gear compression shirt and a hooded sweatshirt. This works OK and has the added benefit of making me feel like Rocky Balboa or LL Cool J “I’m gonna knock you out, Mama said knock you out!”

So let’s hear it. What do you wear when it’s cold out? Oh, and before any of you year-round-warm-climate folks chime in with chippy remarks about how you don’t have to worry about this kind of thing, allow me to invite you to help yourselves to a bucketful of SHUT UP JUICE! Yeah, you know who you are.