The Right Equipment

February 5th, 2010 will mark my 3rd attempt to complete a 5K in under 40 minutes. 'Cept one thing. It's gonna be friggin' cold out. The Jolly Jaunt was no picnic, mind you. It had snowed the day before and was windy as all get out.

But an outdoor race. In February. In Maine???

I only registered for the race because registration for that allowed us early registration for the Polar Bear Tri in May. But now that we are registered (my daughter and I) she wants to actually RUN in it. Yikes.

Which means that sometime this week I will be making a trip to REI to check out those items that people who like to run outside in the cold USE when they run outside in the cold.

Like long running pants. I prefer to run in nylon capris. Just because. Pretty sure that is not going to cut it this time.

Maybe some Under Armour? That stuff is awesome except for one thing. It's kinda tight. Which is nice if you want to show off your curves. But when you have rather large......curves.....it doesn't really allow you to feel super comfortable. I prefer to hide my light under a bushel so to speak. My husband bought me what was supposed to be a running shirt for my birthday. A hot pink XL Under Armour short sleeved shirt.

He usually tries to pretend that something looks good on me, even if it doesn't. Twenty years of living with a person will teach you a thing or two about how they will react if you make disparaging comments about their clothing and how it looks on them.

When I came downstairs in this shirt, he didn't even try. That's how I know it was pretty bad.

So I am off to find the appropriate "stuff" to make running outside in the winter manageable. Not enjoyable, just manageable. I am not sure anything could make it enjoyable except maybe a motorized scooter. Or alcohol. Or both.

Considering that I will not run outside again until May, I wonder if I could just rent the stuff?