i seem to have read 0 pages this week, so i didn't finish "the memory of running", so it looks like i'll have a carry-over book.

the past week i've been looking for running tights. let me clarify - CHEAP running tights. i got an expensive pair for xmash from junior - a $50 pair of underarmour tights. they are incredibly comfortable, perfect fit, superior temperature control. but, $50?! that is not in my everyday budget. these will be my good tights for races and shizzle. my formerly good tights will become my semigood tights for like group runs and shizzle. my regular, everyday tights for when i am just out running at lunchtime and it's just me - these are of the CHEAP variety.

i have had 2 pair of cheap walmart leggings for like... well, forever. sometime during the past month, i lost 1 of those 2 pair and this is quite distressing because it's not like there was anything wrong with them but now they have to be replaced. so, fine. i have been shopping. i looked at the mall, and at academy sports, kmart, and target. nothing. i finally broke down and went to walmart and bingo! leggings for $5 a pair - and, organic, no less. they are a brand called "seed supply company" and of course i cannot find good pic of their logo. i wore one pair today and they felt great. now, there's no telling if they will hold up, but hello - $5? if they don't hold up, i'll replace them. the thing is that for everyday wear i want something that i am not going to care if they get muddy or torn or like... lost.



also at walmart - $5 sunglasses. over the past 18 months or so i have gotten used to wearing sunglasses while i am running and let me tell you there is really a lot to be said for not squinting while running. it's kind of amazing how much difference it makes to not be squinting. if you don't wear shades while running, you should try it.

but one thing about wearing shades while running is that they take a beating. the normal wear & tear alone - for sports equipment, for anyone - is high. then, there's all the sweat which in its copious wet saltiness deteriorates the screws if there are screws or the adhesive if there is adhesive or whatever it is - it deteriorates. point b - the droppage factor. i am forever dropping shizzle onto the hard concrete locker room floor. garmin? timex? contact lens? prescription glasses? mirror? hairbrush? mitten? okay, that last one not such a big deal with the breakage, but if you can see the general drift here is that if it's in my hand, there's about a 42.368% chance at any given moment that it will go directly to the floor. it's not like i am brobdinaggian, but falling from my hands to the concrete is not generally beneficial to material belongings.

so, there's the normal wear & tear, the sweat, and the droppage and altogether you get a rough life for a pair of shades. maybe the expensive ones would last longer, but who wants to worry about them? plus, at $5 pop, i can have a pair or two at home and a pair or two in the locker.

everything i was looking for - cheap tights & cheap sunglasses - was on the shelf at walmart. what could i do? i bought the shizzle. and really, when you think about the big picture, it's all good because if he wasn't sewing my tights - that 4 year old in vietnam would probably fall in with a bad crowd, be smoking cigarillos and sleeping late.