So I knitted my hats and sent them off to the lovely people at Innocent at the end of November. Since then, I’ve been following the Hat of the Week only to get wool envy and have to sigh a big sigh that none of my hats made the grade (considering that they’ve received 625,360 hats this year, the odds were stacked against me). Except for this week when I didn’t look at the contenders and I only went and won the bloody thing! I am giddier than is seemly for a woman of my age.

Having signed up for Janathon, competitive knitting is the only thing  I’m likely to win in the near future. I love Junathon – the bright early mornings, the evening runs along the canal, the sun on my face and the breeze through my hair…  At the moment I struggle to get up in time to do the basic necessities to look vaguely presentable, go to work in the gloom and come home in the dark. I hate running on my own in the dark and continue to avoid buying a new hi-vis bib so that I have a ready made excuse to stay in. Why the heck have I signed up for Janathon?

It’s been a bit of a mixed bag since my last post. I’m still having problems adjusting to the dark nights, which has been made worse with the clocks changing, and I still haven’t invested in any new reflective stuff  (a bib that doesn’t slide under my bosom and round the side would be nice). I’ve started running with my mate again (she has a good hi-vis, so I just run behind her) and I’m trying to keep up with a longer run on the weekend.

After one evening run with my mate, I found myself wondering which was worse, having a run scuppered because of your own dodgy tummy or because that of your running companion. With both there’s the grumpiness that you’ve lost a planned mile or so, but having waddled the last mile and a half of a 4 mile loop, coming close to asking strangers if I could use their facilities, I realised that it’s far worse if it’s your own… I redeemed myself the day after with an early and frosty 7 miles, which was also the opportunity to try out the sunglasses that the kind people at Polaroid had sent me.

The caveat attached to this review is that I’m not good with sunglasses on the grounds that I think that they make me look a bit daft. When I’m already looking quite silly in my running kit, putting sunglasses on is a bit like saying “I want sprinkles” on an already gaudy cake. And if you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’ll also know that I’m more of a haphazard runner than anything serious, so if you want a proper review by a proper runner, have a look at Taking Jelly Babies From Strangers.

I’d actually tried to wear them the weekend before, but had mis-timed my run and left it a bit late in the day. From this trial, I learned that they sit very comfortably on top of the head and don’t trap hair when you swap from nose to head and back again. Do not underestimate the value of being able to run without having to detangle a pair of glasses that are suspended in front of your face. With hindsight, I could have used this opportunity to try the fancy orange lenses for low light (“it’s like being in a bottle of Lucozade”  says Ginge), but they’ll have to wait for another day.

So off I went into the bright sunny morning. The first thing that I realised about the Polaroids is how light and comfy they are, there was certainly no bouncing around and they didn’t leave dents on my nose like my normal sunnies. Second, the route that I took has quite high hedges, but the sun pokes through and a lot of the time I was running with the sun in my peripheral vision. The snug fit and the shape of the lenses means that there’s no intrusive glare round the sides. Thirdly, I always overheat when I’m running and despite the cold, despite the panting, despite the fact that I was steaming like a dray horse, there was no clouding up of lenses. Fourthly, they look like cricketer’s sunglasses, so if the worst comes to the worst and it rains all winter, I can run round the house pretending to be Graeme Swann.

So, all in all, I have to say that they are rather wonderful – fingers crossed for more sunshine this weekend!