The running mom’s Christmas wish list

There are several gift-giving guides for children available this time of year, but don’t forget the special woman in your life who considers hot pink Asics her number one fashion statement. Here are the gifts the running mom in your life really wants.

Noise-isolating earphones. After listening to a never-ending chorus of “Mommy? Mommy! Mooooommy. MOMMY!” for hours on end every day, we don’t want to hear anything except Rihanna’s newest mix or maybe some Iron Maiden while we run. We don’t want to hear the neighbourhood dog, we definitely don’t want to hear your kid if we don’t have to listen to our own, and we’re even negotiable on hearing someone sneaking up behind us in the event they want to take us to a quiet place.

A good sports bra. Mother Nature is a cruel, cruel beast. You’d think she’d take it easy because she’s one of us, but unfortunately she changes everything after a woman gives birth. Everything. And there’s nothing more disheartening than realizing that sound you hear 2k into your run is not your feet hitting the pavement, but rather your once perky assets slapping against your ribcage.

Wine. Also known as liquid motivation. We might not be super-eager to run home to the chaos we left behind, but you can bet the promise of a glass of malbec will put a spring in our step and keep us going until the end.

A running shirt. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy or special. It just needs to be there as back-up in the very likely event the one we’re wearing gets puked on or a massive snot ball rubbed on it before we can make it to the front step.

A banana. Chances are we were saving the last one in the house as a pre-run snack, but cut it up for our three-year old instead. Chances are even greater said child didn’t eat it, but made sure to stick it in their ear or up their nose so we couldn’t either.

Running tights and/or Body Glide. Sometimes when we find the time or actually remember to shave/wax our legs, we get motivated to put on a cute pair of shorts or a running skirt. And then after a few kilometers we remember the reason we stopped wearing them in the first place is that our thighs are aiming to earn a Girl Scouts badge by trying to start a fire in a very primitive way.

A nap. If there’s anything that kills motivation faster than discovering a Gilmore Girls marathon on TV, it’s exhaustion. And if your spouse/daughter/friend is a mom, there’s a 98% chance she’s tired. The other two per cent who say they aren’t are lying or heavy drinkers and the alcohol has numbed their senses.