MotherJoggerBlogger: Cold Head Lampin'

My trail pal is the best. She called me early in the week to ask me out on a Friday evening date to the Whitewater Center. I knew what my week had in store for me, so the idea of knowing I had an end of week free for all through the woods was exactly what I needed on the books. After getting the thumbs up from Mark, and a mending-well outlook from Stella, I couldn't wait to hit the woodsie, rooty, crisp smelling path.

And dark path. Did I mention that? The plan was to pick her up at 6, so the sun was going to plummet to the earth and we were going to be mid-run, mid-trail, mid-forest, and tripping our way back in the dark and scary woods if we didn't have proper lighting. Trail pal is well-geared for all seasons, weather, and time of day, so she was ready with a headlamp. She was ready with headlamp suggestions. I was not. Ready.

Apparently I was, however, ready to take Heath and day-after-surgery Stella to REI on Friday to make a headlamp purchase. The amount of research I did beforehand was next to zilch. I knew what I needed was something stronger than what one might use to search for a set of old encyclopedias in the attic, but less than what one might spend the better part of a car payment or mortgage on. And REI, they are a retail superstar, ranking right up there with L.L. Bean. They take anything back, at anytime, for any reason. I had nothing to lose.

Except my mind. I had four purchases to make. Shoes for the kids. Clif Shot Bloks. Headlamp. Easy enough, right? Not with Thing One and Thing Two. Day of surgery, Stella was a champ. Day after surgery, she was a manic depressive junkie looking for a fix. And her fix in REI was to run like a wild banshee, spin the sunglasses display, hide in the clothes racks, grab and toss the headlamps, and refuse to try on the only pair of shoes in the store that came in her size. To make matters worse, she had her giant gauzed bandage on her jaw, giving her an air of escaped mental patient.

It took an hour to get the four items. Stella didn't get any shoes, but I also bought a Clif Kids Fruit Rope. No, it wasn't on the list. Stella grabbed that and shoved it in her mouth, eating half the rope (plastic included) before I could utter the word, No.

The reviews I read of my headlamp (read after purchase) were dismal. But I was desperate for the run and hoped for the best. Turns out, my $20 Petzl did the trick. Of course, my friend was leading the way with her much stronger Petzl, so I'm sure that helped guide us through the dark and spooky forest, full of creeping and crawling and scampering critters. We ran 11 miles. It felt incredible. The air was chilled and crisp. For the first time this fall, I could see my breath in the air, and felt the weight of a heavy week lighten.

Heath is thrilled with my headlamp. The last two nights, after the sun has set, he has set off into the forest of our backyard to hunt for monsters. And lost soccer balls.

Pretty sure the monster is that way.