I love the holiday season. I love giving gifts. I’m part of two different Secret Santa exchanges this year, and am having such fun picking out items to send to my partners.
Maybe you have other runners in your life, or people who you have finally goaded into running with you. And let’s be honest, part of the fun of running is the gear. (Okay, maybe that’s just me.) So I got to thinking about what I would put in a Runner’s Stocking. Of course, these would have to be things that would fit into a stocking, and while gift cards are awesome, I wanted to go a step beyond that and still keep the price low. I also like cramming as much as I can into a stocking. So here’s what I would put in.
Gels and other fuel options – I am pretty much a Gu loyalist, though I’ve been branching out and trying other gels, just for the variety of it. I find that I prefer Gu Chomps or some other gummy-like fuel for before a race and gels during. Other people can’t handle the gel texture. So it’s fun to get a variety to try out
Safety pins – Okay, so just about every race hands you safety pins for your bib before the race, but I think it’s fun to pin a bib with colored safety pins. I saw a guy running once with his bib affixed with giant diaper pins with little yellow duckies on the ends. Adorable. Strange, but adorable.
Shoelaces – Fun colored shoelaces are an awesome accessory! As a Sweat Pink ambassador, I’m kind of hooked on pink, but any color will do.
Anti-Chafing Spray – Okay, so it’s less fun than some of the other things. But nothing is less fun than chafing. Seriously.
Bath Salts – Epsom salts rock. I love getting fancy bath salts to add to my bath after a long run. It’s like a treat and definitely feels great on my muscles
Lip balm – Absolutely the type with SPF. Very necessary, both in summer and in winter.
Cheap knit gloves – Every so often, you’re at the store and you see a bin of those cheap, stretchy knit gloves for a buck or two. Buy them! They keep your hands warm before a race and are cheap enough that you don’t feel bad ditching them by the side of the road once you warm up. And they’re great for putting into a stocking. Bonus points if they are ridiculously colored.
What would you put into an inexpensive, fun, runner’s stocking?
Ooooh. You could do a tube or two of nuun, a bottle of NewSkin (just in case), if it’s a girl a package of hair bands (the no-snag Goody brand ones), if it’s a guy some NipGuards or bandaids…
Oh, the possibilities!
Hmmmm, “if it’s a girl a package of hair bands” — I to to wearing my hair very long when I was around fifty (cheaper than buying a sports car for a midlife crisis, eh?) and I used elastic bands to hold it in a pony tail. My daughter was in middle school then and her friends all knew that I was sure to have a package of hair bands in my car. (My wife hated my pony tail and when she got another master’s degree and I asked her what she would like as a graduation present — her response was that she wanted me to get a haircut — goodbye pony tail.)
But what about sweat bands? As someone who can’t see without his eyeglasses, I need a sweat band to keep sweat out of my eyes and to avoid chafing on the bridge of my nose.
Subscriptions to runner’s magazines. (I love New England Runner. I know when I lived in upstate New York there was a New York running publication I subscribed to — maybe there is a regional running magazine for the area where the gift receiver lives.)
A highly reflective vest for running at night.
An ID tag with Name, emergency contact info, etc. to fasten to shoelaces — just in case. (I’ve been running since 1982 and I keep telling myself I should get one of those but thirty years later I still don’t have one.)