Running Naked

A few weeks ago I was introduced to the idea of running naked and thought I could never ever do it.  Tonight I did it!  Now before anyone gets any ideas or starts screaming in horror at the thought, running naked is about running without a watch or music.  It's just running for the love of running. 

Tonight was my first run in a couple of weeks and it felt great!  I got home from work with plenty of time to get ready, we got to the store in time for me to make my ritual bathroom visit and the weather was perfect.  About two minutes into our warm up though I felt like something was totally off.  I thought maybe it was because I was wearing my bright yellow reflective vest and I could feel the extra layer but then realized that I really couldn't feel it.  I went on with my stretching and finally realized what was wrong when I heard a very distinct beeping sound from behind me.  I realized very quickly that I had forgotten my Garmin watch!!!  I haven't run without it once since I got it in February.  I have logged every single running step for the past 8 months.  I had a moment of very real panic.  See normally we do timed runs and I am usually quite far behind the rest of the group, often to the point that I can't see the next person.  Without my watch I would have no sense of time and no sense of when to turn around.  I quickly decided that I would have to do a distance run and chose 5k since I know where the turn around point is on all of our routes.  Next I got scared that Benny would go and change our route and throw a new one at me leaving me totally lost again.  Luckily he sent us out on a route that I am fairly familiar with and off we went.  We got to the second stretching point and then were sent off on distances instead of times so it fit my new plan perfectly. 

Tonight's run was 5k in approximately 46 minutes which isn't totally a record for me but it's one of my faster times.  I did the first 2k at what felt like a faster pace than usual and was able to make it up a hill that I have never made it all the way up without walking most of it.  Overall a very successful run.  I haven't run that route in quite some time so it was fun to run it and realize how much easier it seemed this time than it did last winter when I did it for the first time. 

I enjoyed running naked tonight and will make a point to run without my watch on a regular basis and I never run with music.  I can't actually.  It makes me panic because I can't hear my breathing.  On my next run I will bring my watch back out.  I'm going to aim for maybe 8k on Saturday morning but will settle for 6k if I am feeling too tired. 

Give naked running a try sometime!  You might like it too!