The gear, it multiplies!

When you take up a sport, one of the first things you do is pick up the gear you need.  Not everything, just the basics.  For running, that might just be a pair of shoes and some clothes to run in.  For biking, well, you need a bike.  Swimming, a swimming suit is crucial and goggles are a huge perk.

And as you get into the sport, you slowly acquire more and more gear.  You get excited when you get your first swim cap from a race, and race t-shirts just mean that you have to do less laundry.  Two bike helmets are better than one.  What if someone else needs one?

But after a while, the stuff starts to multiply.  No seriously, I’m pretty sure it’s breeding in my closet.  I keep finding swim caps everywhere.  I don’t race that much.  I don’t know where they’re all coming from.  And the race shirts… well, it might be time to pare those down.  I keep saying I’m going to make a quilt (let’s be honest, I’m going to have someone make a quilt – I can’t sew).   But again, it certainly saves on laundry.

Thankfully, I’m not yet the person with a collection of bikes.  I would be, but you know, money.  Had I not bought a car this summer, I would probably be buying a bike.  Because, you know, the proper number of bikes is n+1, n being the number of bikes you currently have.

I have a bin in my office of things that need to go to Goodwill or other donation site and as I was packing stuff up over the weekend, I realized just how many pairs of running shoes are in there.  Those need to go to a donation bin somewhere.  Now that I’m not running 12+ half marathons a year, I’m going through fewer running shoes, which is a plus.  Also, my Hokas seem to last me many more miles than my old Brooks shoes did.

Of course, I make it sound like all this gear accumulates through no fault of my own.  That is an outright lie.  While I HATE shopping for what I call normal clothes, I love shopping for fitness gear.  I’m always looking for a great pair of goggles or a cute bike jersey on sale.  I’m still on the hunt for the perfect bento box for my bike, so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.  I own multiple bags that I can probably pare down – two transition bags for races (one which is just too small), two swim bags, a swim gear bag… But my mother will attest that I have always loved bags.  Pretty sure she feared I would grow up to be a bag lady.  Instead, I work for the government.  I’m not sure that’s better.

This summer, I need to corral all of my gear into one place, instead of the various places it’s stashed around the house.  I need to take a look at what I have and start to pare down.  Or at least stop accumulating more.  It’s a process.