Michelin Man

Guess what?

It’s Spring time again and in our house, that means track season! And this year I get the pleasure of watching my two older girls participate together, sometimes in the same event and so far I’m loving it! Not only do I get my monies worth but it makes all those hours of being outside worth it, getting to see two of my kids in multiple events.

And, boy, did I have to keep reminding myself of that last Friday when it was dark and cloudy with a high of 40 degrees, and a wind chill that made it feel more like 20. Before it began, I stood in my bedroom trying to decide what to wear that would keep me warm for the next 7 hours. Do I try and look stylish but take a chance of freezing or do I just bite the bullet and go for the Michelin Man look? After a few changes, I decided it was gonna be too cold to care about looks and went with the Michelin Man. I piled on the layers, pulled out all the winter gloves and caps and grabbed some big blankets. I made a steaming pot of coffee for the Stanley thermos and made up a big bag of snacks in my awesome, new cooler backpack that only a sports mom would appreciate. I was sweating to death trying to get everything ready at the house so it was a pleasant relief to finally get out to the track.

The weatherman was spot on and it was as cold as was predicted. I was flying solo for this meet, so it was quite a trick trying to lug my stadium chairs, blankets and fully packed snack backpack across the field to the bleachers. It would have been bad enough on a nice day hauling all that gear, but all my layers constricting my movements and the wind blowing my hair into my eyes restricting my peripheral view made it a bit challenging. But I made it, set all my junk down in the bleachers near the finish line, then sauntered off to find the sand pits so I could watch my girls jump.

Since Hubby couldn’t be there, I promised I’d text him updates and I planned to send video too. However, after standing there for a while, waiting to watch them, I began to realize that not even a NASA suit was going to keep me warm and certainly not my Michelin Man gear. Even with gloves on, my fingers began to freeze immediately and the wind was whipping cold air straight through all my layers. I decided the updates to Hubby would not be video and very limited text, because when I tried texting, my frozen digits just tapped randomly at the letters on my phone and all kind of weird word combinations came up. I decided I would only text the highlights and at the end of each competition and only after my fingers were at their very warmest. He kept asking for the status and I just didn’t have the ability to operate a cell phone at that time. Sorry, honey!

Anyway, as the hours went on, the colder it got and the more I had to keep reminding myself how much I loved watching my girls. I made sure to keep sucking down my hot coffee in and attempt to keep my insides warm but all that did was make me have to throw off my blankets and run to the bathroom 16 times so I’m not sure that was too smart of a decision. And I decided that next time, I should maybe bring down comforters, instead of three small blankets, or perhaps a battery powered heating blanket. I’m not sure, but I started shaking four hours into the meet and I didn’t quit till I was eating at the restaurant another three hours later. I didn’t feel sorry for myself, as I looked at all the kids with their tank top and shorts uniforms on having to perform in that weather, or the poor timers and guy that shoots the gun having to stand out there all day with no blankets or hot coffee. I knew they had it way worse so as my teeth chattered and my face turned pale due to lack of heat, I grinned and cheered, even timed a few races and managed to send some text updates to Hubby. I made the best of that gosh darn cold track meet and I’m sure there are one or two more coming up so I better wash up my Michelin Man gear and be ready to go!