TITLE: Pink Socks
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: March 08, 2006 11:41 AM
DESC:
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BODY:
There's a title I never had planned for a blog
entry.
This isn't really a running post, but if I were
not a runner, then it would never have happened.
Then again, if there had never been a 09/11, it
probably wouldn't have happened, either.
When I
go to conferences,
I pack
for running.
For the past couple of years, I have taken powered
Gatorade and an empty water bottle with me. Just
add water, I have the liquid I need to recover
from longer runs. The Gatorade turns out to be
a nice drink even on mornings when I don't run --
conferences often don't serve anything but coffee
in the morning, and sports drink is low-calorie
and high vitamins and minerals.
I pack the powder in a plastic container that
seals tight, to keep the powder in and the
moisture out. On my trip to Houston, I took
tropical punch-flavored powder.
Well, my friends at the
TSA
must have conducted a thorough search of my bags
on the way bag from Houston. When I got home,
there was little red powder everywhere, but
especially in my running shoes and clothes. I
found the plastic container, whose lid had not
been put back on tightly. It was in a large
ziploc baggy that wasn't zipped 100% either.
So the search may have been thorough, but it
was not all that careful.
I grumbled a bit about the misfortune, shook
my clothes and shoes out carefully, and forgot
about it.
Until this morning. When I finished my run, I
was changing in the locker room when I noticed
that my socks were pink at the ankles. When I
got the shoes off, I saw that the socks were
mottled pink all over, especially the soles. I
must not have gotten all of the powder out of
my shoes after all. Now a pair of good running
socks is stained irreversibly with red dye #2.
I suppose that I should have done something
more to be sure that my shoes were powder-free,
but it just didn't occur to me.
Thanks, TSA. Thanks, Al Qaeda.
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