Recently I realized how much of a gear head runner I really am. My friends and running mates have always made fun of me for the amount of gear I carry with me when I run. Between my MP3 player, heart rate monitor, gps unit. If it is a
long run then I also have my lumbar bag with a water bottle, gu, and cell phone. With all of this I had more equipment on me than the original “6 Million Dollar Man”.

I’m a big guy so a few extra pounds of equipment doesn’t feel like that much to me. Though it started to occur to me much of an anomaly I must appear to be. But what if anything could go? No music, no gps, no heart rate, no cell phone?
Well the cell phone could go. Especially my brick of a Nextel that was designed to withstand the wear and tear of normal every day life including the unfortunate times when a 3 year old little boy got ahold of it.

As I looked for ways to lighten my load I discovered a way to make an even bigger change. I found a cell phone that was small, lightweight, had all of the cool camera features, but was also a 512MB MP3 player. Now I was even more geekified because I could minimize, but also upgrade with a camera so that now I can take pictures while I run. This was the answer I was looking for.

How much gear do you run with? MP3 player, radio, cd player, heart rate monitor? Do add a pound or two every time you step outside to go for your daily run? Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be writing about ways to minimize the gear
in your running bag. I’ll also be talking about the pros and cons of different items. So if you aren’t sure if you need something we might have some information to help you out.

If you have questions or suggestions for anything please by all means send me a question at the runninggeek@runcolumbus.com.

The Running Geek.