It’s been a bad day.
The cat woke us up scratching on the bed at 3:20 a.m. (We shut her in the bathroom.) I’d set my alarm early to get up and go for a run, which means that I woke up every ten minutes thereafter in anticipation. When I finally did get up, I felt sluggish and my throat was sore. The arm on my sunglasses broke. I couldn’t find my iPod headphones. Nevertheless, I headed out for half an hour of shuffling around the park. My nose ran constantly. (How do you runner-types deal with this? Whenever I’m out on a chilly morning, my nose runs. That made me feel like I wasn’t getting enough oxygen. By the end of my first lap, I was seriously considering blowing my nose on my sleeve. (I didn’t.)) Once I got to work, I discovered that we were short-staffed AGAIN today due to sickness (which made everybody who did come in that much grumpier). And then the Excel spreadsheet I’d spent three days working on got corrupted and broken and I couldn’t open it at all. And suddenly I noticed that I’ve got a full-on head cold forming here. Everything sucks.
But then my wonderful clever husband managed to retrieve the data from my file and provided the one ray of sunlight in a terrible, no-good, very bad day…
Rob
August 2, 2005 — 11:12 pm
I havn’t been a runner type for like 20 years, but back then I used the sleeve.
eileen
August 3, 2005 — 12:28 am
Cold weather + running = boogers. Not much you can do about it. I try to shove a bunch of tissues in my pocket while running, but if I forget, I shamelessly blow my nose on my sleeve. I’ve even resorted to using a leaf to blow my nose (whoops, probably too much information).
kristen
August 3, 2005 — 1:19 am
warning: some grossness/possibly TMI in following comment. when i’m running or biking and my nose starts running, i do the ‘snot rocket’. sort of hold the nose and blow, but with no tissue. snot hits ground. wipe hand on shorts or shirt. continue as normal. or i use my sleeve. my shirt is definitely going in the wash once i get home anyway…
eileen
August 3, 2005 — 1:22 am
kristen, the pheomenon you speak of is also known as the Farmer’s Blow. practiced widely by runners, skiiers, and apparently farmers.
Max
August 3, 2005 — 2:47 am
Kris, I’m also an advocate of the snot rocket when running–I enjoy feeling like I’m pushing out those toxins. I’ll totally wipe my nose with my hand and just fling it on the ground or wipe it on my shirt (as Kristen says, it’s headed straight for the laundry anyway). I see it as a perk of running, not a downside. 🙂
Samantha
August 3, 2005 — 7:58 am
I’ve gone with the rocket, as well as the sleeve. Sometimes I’ll swallow inadvertently, which makes me want to wretch.
Tricia
August 3, 2005 — 11:04 am
I think this whole Q&A falls into TMI, right? Hopefully it’s a safe place and folks won’t be too grossed out.
I snuffle alot while running, but if I get drippy I’ll do the hand wipe to sleeve or the use hem of my shirt. No blowing, though. While biking or snowboarding, I will sometimes use my glove (after noticing that the snowboarding glove actually advertised it’s soft nose-wiping feature). If I’ve really got my act together, however, on long runs and bike rides I’ll bring along a handkerchief to use. Unlike tissues, it’s not a big deal if you forget to remove it from your pocket before doing wash.
I like the children’s lit reference, btw; hope the day is looking up.
Kris
August 3, 2005 — 11:42 am
See, I don’t think I can do the rocket because there’s not really enough MASS there, you know? It’s just drippiness. I have a fear that it’d just aerosolize back into my face or something.
Niffler
August 3, 2005 — 4:48 pm
For a non-runner, this conversation is fascinating, albeit a little scary.