iCandybyWangC

• The reason isn’t completely crazy •

[1½ MIN READ]

So about that yellow Bob-the-Builder hardhat that I wear to night-time runs. The more recent explanation is that a bunch of us did the End of the Road Half-marathon out in central PA last year. The course traverses an old section of the PA turnpike with 2 abandoned tunnels for which lights are required. Headlight: check. But in my convoluted thinking, if I’m in a dark tunnel as if I was in some kind of construction zone, I have to have a hardhat: check. Btw, the yellow Growlers shirt you can occasionally find some of us wearing to runs also comes from that race. Team shirts for the team runners: check. And why continue wearing the hardhat? Like the cowboy hats you’ll see me wearing regularly when I’m not running, it keeps my head warm when it’s cold, dry when it’s rainy, and shaded when it’s sunny. And it just plain makes me stand out.

The explanation for the yellow of my hardhat goes back long before that race, though; back longer before even Bob the Builder. As a family with 4 young sons, arguments occasionally arose about whose kitchen tableware belonged to whom and who was using someone else’s. The brilliant idea of the mother of those 4 sons was to buy color-coordinated cups and bowls. Guess what color belonged to this son, #3? Occasionally, even now, when we’re together as adults, we 4 still lean toward identifying with our childhood colors: blue, green, yellow, and red.

 

 

In fact, on the rare occasion when we exchange holiday gifts, if we can find our colors represented in one particular item, that’s the color and item the respective brother will receive. So, when I found an industrial supplier years ago that had hardhats in each of our colors, a hardhat was what I gave each brother; including myself.

Recognize, then, that when you run with me wearing that yellow hardhat, you’re actually running with me for us 4 sons*: check, check, check, and check.
-CtCloser (Calvinthe), “Negative split or positive splat” #dothedue

FINE PRINT
*Correct. None of them run. At least, not anymore. ¶Text and photos (unless otherwise stated): Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ¶Cross-posted: (1) Facebook JRC Growlers Group Run (2023’11’01’W Run Message), (2) GGR email list, (3) Cerebruns by CtCloser. ¶This website posting: Cerebrun only with added caption.

 

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