About a month ago, when I first broke the 13.1 mile mark, I sat on my iPod Nano. Yes, sat on it. I mean Winston (the name of that iPod) has been through a lot: he's been dropped on asphalt, drenched in sweat, and thrown across a room. But apparently, when you squeeze him between a 185-pound man and a hard plastic subway seat, there is no chance he'll come out alive.
So Winston died after almost two years of abuse. He will be missed. Here is the postmortem picture:
Since then I've had to use Winston's older brother: Isaac. Isaac is my three year old iPod mini who had been retired when I won Winston in a raffle. Isaac is heavy and bulky compared to Winston, but he still plays music. Although I found out on one run that he only has about 1:45 worth of battery life in him. So I've been running these past few weeks pausing my music during the easy parts and playing it during the hard parts.
During this month that I've taken Isaac back from the pasture I've been debating on what new iPod to get. There are the new Nanos: ultra-thin, cool colors, 8GB of memory, and they connect to my Nike+. The draw back is the $250 price for something that I'm going to beat up and sweat all over and most likely have to replace in a year or two (runners are a frugal bunch). But then there is the Shuffle: unbelievably small and compact, with a built in super-strong clip; it only has 1GB of memory, but comes with an equally small price of $79.
Decisions, decisions.
But thanks to my credit card, the decision became very easy. I have a bunch of reward points from my credit card and found out that I could use those points a get a free Shuffle. A free Shuffle or a $250 Nano? Um. I didn't have to do much thinking there.
I placed the order last weekend and the Shuffle arrived on Friday. I've named him Liam Grau. The rationale behind the name? I always give my iPods a full name: the first name is a very intellectual sounding name, because iPods are smart products; the last name is always related to their color. Isaac Verde (verde = green in Spanish), Winston Ecru (ecru is actually off-white, but sounded better than other options), Liam Grau (grau = gray in German).
I went for my first run with him yesterday and it was great (never mind that I didn't have to pause the music to conserve battery life). He was light and clipped right onto my shorts, which meant I didn't have to reach across my chest to fiddle with an upside-down iPod on an armband:
Welcome to the family Liam.
7 comments:
I personally LOVE my iPod shuffle (named Jack Ives, after a favorite tv character - much less clever than your naming method). May you both enjoy many happy journeys together!
What a great post! I love it that you named your little guy - I can tell the affection you have for your music and running.
I have a Nano and a Shuffle, but run exclusively with the Shuffle, although I am way boring and don't name. My hubby figured out a way to compress files and I have 10+hrs of music on it. Comes in handy when you are doing lots of long runs, at least you don't keep hearing the same songs all the time. Enjoy!!
PS I have the green one :)
Nancy: I was thinking of you when I got the Shuffle and how you had just gotten a green one! How does your husband compress the files?
And yes, Amy, I am BIG into running with music. Purists be damned: I can't run more than six miles without music. The pat-pat of my own feet cannot entertain me for 4 hours.
I will ask him and let you know! Details, details. :) I just take advantage of the results.
Nice post! I have both a shuffle for running and a nano for traveling. Shuffle is blue, so he's Blues Cruise; nano is white, so Mighty Whity. We're all one happy family.
Hope you have lots of great runs with Liam!
Ok, so I'm catching up on your blog by going way back. My youngest son's name is Liam. I won that discussion; my wife wasn't sold on it, and it was actually hours before she was being released when the nurse said "you have to name your son before we can let you leave." I've always thought it was a rad name. Old ladies at church, though, still think his name is Leon. "NO, you old lady! His name is LIAM, not LEON! Does he look like a LEON to you?" Basically, I approve of your iPod's name.
Post a Comment