Ragnar Costume Ideas

I just ordered new running shoes, and I noticed that they’re named “Ariel.”  Which I thought was a bit funny, since I sometimes feel like my feet are so heavy that I’m running through water.  Not because of the shoes, but because I am slow and tired.  Ha ha!  See, that’s funny, because Ariel is a mermaid.

 

Oh, I just suck at jokes.

 

 

 

Aside: Speaking of names, I met a dog at the park named Aria and I asked her owner if she was an opera fan.  She looked at me like I was nuts.  “You know, because you named her ‘Aria’ like the vocal feature of an opera?”  Apparently, Aria is the name of a character on some teen-marketed TV show.  The girl I was talking with totally did not understand my opera reference.  What is the world coming to?

 

So, yeah, I’m running and I’m not getting any faster, though I am going farther.  And I run without music, mostly because I’m paranoid that if I run with earbuds, I’ll not hear a car or a train (which is really crazy, since I don’t run on the tracks) or a mad bicyclist and Ill get run over.  So I have lots of time to think, well, 30-45 minutes of time to think, when I run.  I enjoy running with friends, but I also enjoy the time with myself, especially if I’m angry or frustrated.  By mile two, I’m less angry and frustrated because the looping monologues in my head have sort of petered out from “Damn it, he should just know what I want without me having to say it,” to “I hope the kids are driving him batshit for a change.”  I think we can all agree that the latter is much healthier.

 

The bad part of my Little Mermaid connection with my shoes is that for the past few runs, I have spent the entire time singing Little Mermaid songs in my head and replacing the lyrics with really terrible running references (“Look at these shoes/aren’t they neat?/wouldn’t you say my outfit’s complete?”).

 

I’m going to make an effort on my next few runs to obsess over running costumes for the Ragnar Relay that Tony and some of our friends and I are doing in July.  Help me, please!  So far, I’ve thought of ninjas and crayons.  The outfits must be suitable for running in the heat of July, which means no gorilla costumes, no makeup, no outsized headgear.  What would you wear?  What do you think would be awesome for twelve people with pretty adventurous, “aww, fuck it, let’s run a 36-hour, 196-mile relay” personalities to wear?  I mean, we’re not the truly insane runners, but I can guarantee that we’ll have a good time and that all of us would get behind a costume.  Maybe old-school Star Trek?  It would be nice if we didn’t have to spend an exorbitant amount of money. 

 

 

Jamie just wants in for the shoes (maybe I’ll start calling them by name, my Ariels.  Or I could call them my Little Mermaids).  I’m hoping that when I do my leg of the run by our house, it won’t be in the middle of the night so my kids can come cheer me on.  Then again, if I’m dressed as a ninja, they might not see me anyway!