Running Naked

If you're not a runner and you saw the title of this post, you probably went "wait... what???" Runners know better, though. Long story short, I forgot to charge my Garmin last night. My husband and I had to switch phones this week, so I had none of my tracking apps, running playlists or my Starbucks app (to be honest, THIS was the real problem - I have to get my stars, after all!) The easy thing would have been to hit the treadmill with my iPad, but it was sooo beautiful outside...

I decided to put on my big girl runner pants and give it a try. To be honest, it was surprisingly refreshing. Even though the streets are quite busy where I normally run, I was able to tune out the cars and trucks and still hear the birds chirping. I missed my music and will more than likely go back to it once I have my phone back, but I didn't miss it nearly as much as I thought I would. 

I admit, I can be a bit of a Garmin-watcher. Today, I wasn't constantly looking down at my wrist to see if I was on pace. Normally, I have a pace in my mind that I need to hit on each run, and I tend to check WAY too much to make sure I'm staying on target. Today, I just went on feel and didn't even look down once to check a phantom Garmin. It was quite a "freeing" feeling, if that's a word (and if it's not, it is now). As you may have guessed, I had a fantastic run, both time-wise and in terms of how I felt.

Finally, that last minor problem of no Starbucks app ended up not being so bad after all. I scrounged around and found an old card, added it to my account, and reloaded it. Voilà - access to my account AND my star for today! A SB card also fits nicely inside a pair of Oiselle Rogas, in case anyone was wondering. It was a beautiful morning and after ending my run at Starbucks to pick up my soy chai, I had a lovely walk back home.

Moral of the story? Everyone should go naked at least once a month, maybe even once a week. Drop the watch, turn off the music, and just ENJOY the run!