These are a few of my favorite things...Summertime Version

Sometimes I feel as if I really need to rid myself of all this STUFF. It weighs me down, ya know? I'm sure I could qualify for Boston easily if I did. HaHa. Right.

All I really need are my shoes and clothes. But lets be honest here...that's never gonna happen so these are the things that I love the most-during the summer. In the winter, it's a whole new ballgame.

1. Yellow Nike running top-very breathable and stretchy. I also like the lower neckline cause I'm a floozy like that. I love showing cleavage when I run.

Actually I like it because its a better tan line and we know that some of those crazy tops will leave ridiculous tan lines.

2. Navy blue Nike running shorts. These are kinda big and saggy on my butt, however they roll up nicely to solve that problem. They have a nice, big key pocket that will hold 2 or 3 GUs.

(This is the exact outfit that I wore to my first race-the 2006 1/2 Country Music Marathon. So it's kind of a sentimental thing. That's where I was bit by the running bug!)

3. Mystery socks-Don't know the brand and I can't remember where I got them...possibly Target. But they are light and cool and don't slip down.

4. Champion sports bra. Got this at Costco...actually it was a pack of 2, but I lost the pink one:( I love it because I never even notice that it's there.

5. Saucony Trigons-This is my second pair of these and I like that they were especially chosen for me. My running style and strike, my weekly mileage and my foot. Gotta love those folks at Fleet Feet on Erin Dr. No more blue toenails! Yay!

6. Brooks running hat-Its a hat. It keeps the sun off my face and holds my hair back. I suppose it has good ventilation as well. I've never run in a normal ball cap, but I'm sure it would be much hotter. This one is made of mesh.

This past weekend, before my 5 mile race, I was asking Greg if he thought I would need my hat because it was kind of early in the morning and the sun wasn't full force. He said, "yes, it's like your trademark." Awesome. I have a trademark. Now I have to wear it everyday.

7. Espresso Love Gu. Yummy and magical. Gives me that much needed boost on long runs.

8. Spitfire Pepper spray-I live in Memphis. I ain't playin, dawg.

9. Rio Cali MP3 player. This is massive in size compared to all those mini I-pods out there, but it has served me well. It was a birthday gift from my folks when I was living in Japan. That's where I first started to run seriously. It has survived rain, snow, heat, cold and being dropped on the ground numerous times. Yet it lives on. Before I had my watch, I used it as a stopwatch and it has a radio, which is cool too. The only qualm I have with this is that it has/had a cheap plastic screw holding the player to the arm band. That broke on like the second day. It has been ghetto rigged with a twist tie every since.

10. Fuel Belt waist pack. Ok, I don't absolutely love this because it creates sores on my back and can be heavy when full , BUT it has come in handy during long runs. I can carry my water, multiple GUs, cell phone, pepper spray and chapstick. Yes, we've established the fact that I carry too much crap while running.

11. Polar RS200sd-My new favorite! This baby can tell me my mileage, pace, heart rate, calories burned, lap time and time! It also stores this info and gives me the average stats of the week or month. I'm still learning about all the great and wonderful things that it can do.

12. Chapstick. Do I really need to explain why this is a necessity? I didn't think so...