It’s “hard” week again. And I wasn’t ready. I really thought that I needed more than one day to recover from last week’s “hard week.” After much procrastination, running errands, chores, laying around and reading, my husband practically pushed me out the door to run. The time was 4:00 PM. And it was hot and muggy.
One thing that occurred to me whilst lazing around this afternoon, falling in and out of sleep, is that I NEVER run without a hat. Never, ever, ever. I don’t even wear visors anymore. It’s always a hat. I wondered if I could even run without a hat. What if, perhaps, I left the house forgetting my hat. Would I drive back?
You betcha.
I find it humorous that when I take my boys hiking, I ALWAYS say, “Get a hat.” And they look at me like they wouldn’t know what to do with a hat.
If I don’t wear a hat, this is what happens: Sweat drips down from my forehead, salty sweat. It gets into my eyes (ouch), but even worse, the salty sweat seeps into my eyelid creases and burns a hairline cut across them. This sometimes even occurs when I wear a hat (on particularly long and hot runs). A visor will help with the salty sweat, but it won’t help with heat exhaustion. That’s why it’s always a hat, never a visor which leaves the top of my head exposed.
Today’s run was relatively short, a little over 6 miles and I still wasn’t going to run it without a hat. Better yet, today I thought that I’d try one of my hats that I oh, so much want to like. It’s one of those hats with a flap on the back to provide shade for your neck. The sun shined particularly bright when I left today. Time to try it out (again).
Running into Wood Canyon:
Heading up to West Ridge via Cholla Trail:
A view of Catalina Island from Park Avenue Nature Trail (look closely at horizon line):
The verdict on the super cool flap hat . . . I still hate it. The hat literally traps the heat in. I just don’t understand it. People love these hats. Even worse, I can’t turn it around to wear it backward. And that makes all the difference in the world to me. So I will wash this hat and pack it away in my gym bag for anyone who wants to borrow it.
Another greeting from Top of the World: