I’m making a life change!!

Am I going vegan?  Am I giving up dairy?  Giving up sugar?? Giving up running???  Well heck no, I’m getting a new MP3 player!

#shocker

No seriously, the death of my faithful MP3 player has been a pretty serious matter here in my head. Why don’t I just run without music?  I don’t like to!  I don’t like to hear myself panting heavy when I run, because that makes me feel like I’m working too hard, which makes me nervous, which makes me breath even heavier!  Blech!

I’m also a solo runner quite often, so I enjoy the entertainment.  Not to mention how my tunes help me pick up the pace!

But back to my sad Shuffle story.  I got my first iPod Shuffle years ago.  Back when I first started running. I went to the park one day, and left my iPod on my car hood.  I drove off.  That was the last time I saw my Shuffle #1. Very, very sad 🙁

IPod Shuffle #2!  My loving husband actually had this one engraved.  This definitely encouraged me to keep better track of it.  It says “Run Like A Mother”. The Another Mother Runner tribe (website, podcasts, books) have been a big part of my running motivation, so this was the perfect encryption.  He’s so good at picking out thoughtful gifts!

For the past year I’ve been having issues with my iPod – although I was convinced it was my headphones.  Like back in April at the start line of the Glass City marathon. I leaned over to tie my shoes and the headphones started hissing, then the sound would fade in and out.  Oh great, just what I needed before a big race! This situation happened several other times during the past year too.

I kept trying new headphones.  Marking the old ones with X’s, and moving on to another pair, just in case the old headphones really weren’t quite dead.  It wasn’t until I got a brand new pair and found out they had the same problem! Yep, then I realized it was my iPod.

I had one more final issue as I was packing for Columbus half on Saturday.  Luckily, Alan offered his iPod, and I loaded it up with my songs. Hooray for reliable music!

At first I started thinking about that new Garmin Forerunner 645 which stores music.  Problem is, I would need wireless headphones. Probably don’t need to spend all of the money when I can just replace my iPod.

Then I was going to just replace the iPod with another Shuffle, but they don’t make them anymore 🙁  No problem, I’d get one off Ebay. I figured I could pick one up for $20. They are old news after all. Issue was, the used ones were all selling for $35-$40!  That seemed like a lot for someone’s old player which could have the same issues as mine! I think it was only $50 new.

After a lot of research I found the SanDisk Sport Clip Plus.  There’s not a lot of MP3 players that are comparable to the iPod Shuffle, because you know, people just use their phones for music, but my phone doesn’t have any space for that!

The SanDisk is small, water resistant, and even has Bluetooth!  Watch out, I’m getting high tech… you might see me sporting a pair of wireless headphones one of these days.  It could happen! And, I got a refurbished SanDisk for only $39. Practically new.

Fingers crossed that the SanDisk all that I hoped it would be.  No, I haven’t even seen one in person. I just ordered it from Amazon.  Product review coming soon!! I will miss my iPod. We’ve had some good times together.  But I will NOT miss iTunes. I hate iTunes!!!!!!!

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Q:  Do you use wireless headphones?

Truth be told, I have been quite curious about the Aftershokz headphones.  They work with bone conductivity. (they just got them in stock over at Dave’s Running store too… I’m going to have to try them out!!)

Q:  Do you have an MP3 player?

Q:  Do you pay for music streaming on your phone, or use a free service?

I’m curious what everyone uses!