What better way to celebrate this joyous occasion than to go for an 8 mile run in 13 degree wind chills? I know, that's exactly what you would have thought, too. And you also would have thought to wear this stunning running outfit:
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| Neon yellow with purple running tights. Please note dog -shaped throw-rug in the background. |
You must understand that I run in the country because I live in the country--and this means I often run to the sound of guns being fired at some country critter(s), and I wear obnoxious colors to be seen not only by motorists but also by people with guns firing at country critters. Although what with people killing elementary school children and firefighters lately, I picked up the pace a bit when I heard the guns, hoping that someone wasn't trying to use me in my bright yellow neon-ness as target practice.
But I would like to talk about one piece of running gear I have on in that picture: my gloves. Having braved 2 winters as a runner in Illinois, I have been in constant search of a pair of winter gloves that are lightweight enough to not make me fear of losing fingers to frostbite in the later miles of any cold run, and I think I've found them. They are Saucony Women's Ulti-Mitten gloves, which are pretty damned pricey but worth every penny. They come with a very bright light that is USB rechargeable and have a spot on the glove to clip the light, so no need for carrying it. But what really amazed me was that these gloves are like gloves and mittens AT THE EXACT SAME TIME.
I know, you're probably thinking, "Hey, idiot--they have made those little flippity-top gloves now for a while. These aren't so special." Well, I beg to vehemently disagree with you and then roll my eyes at you smugly while putting one hand on my hip.
You see, these gloves are actually full-on gloves; most of the flip-top type glove/mittens I've found have the fingertips of the gloves cut off, which makes running with them in 13 degree windchills a tad dangerous, in my opinion, unless you have hand warmers with you. Instead of cutting the fingertips off so you can manipulate things without feeling like you're hitting puberty again, they make the tip of each index finger and thumb a flip-top in and of itself. The mitten-part of the Ulti-Mitten then flips over the gloves; if you ever don't want to use the mitten, there is a pocket on the back of the glove into which you can tuck the mitten-sleeve-thing.
These gloves have been finger-savers along with sanity savers. Once my fingers get cold, my inner whiny-baby starts coming out, and there's just something about thinking I may lose a finger that demotivates me on my runs. But with these gloves, that whiny little voice sniveling about how expensive amputation would be and wondering if my insurance would cover running-related frostbite has been entirely silent, much to my pleasure. Do my fingers get cold? Yep. Do they go numb and start hurting? No. Runs are much more enjoyable when you're not contemplating how you'll type your blog posts minus a few fingers.
Another cool feature (no cold weather running pun intended) that these gloves/mitten hybrids possess is a little strip of soft cloth on each glove that--are you ready for this--is PERFECT for wiping your nose after you let loose a snot rocket on the fly. I produce copious amounts of snot during cold runs, and my nose sure could have used this feature on several of last winter's runs where I felt like the bottom of my nose was encased in frozen crusty-nastiness at the end of a run. (Note: My husband thinks this feature is pretty gross. But he likes that I don't come in the house with snot frozen to clothing and/or body parts.)
Overall, it was a nice little run I had today. I did have to keep the pace down as to not aggravate the Achilles as much, but sometimes it's nice to have a run where you're not trying to keep some number in your head or in your feet.
Or snot in your nose instead of on your face.
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