It’s been a busy season of road runs and walks: 1K, 5K, 6K, 10K, half-marathons, and marathons in a few cases. The popularity of these events has surprised me. We are coming up to one year of Fitness Weekly, which started at the beginning of 2025, to capture the post-Christmas/New Year mood to get fit and work off the festive fat.
We hit the gyms, parks and roads hard in January. I’m personally keen on fitness and proper nutrition, but a lot of what we’ve covered in this space has been a journey of discovery. The popularity of runs and walks was part of it. They’re on every weekend, often on both days. At times, different races are taking place at the same time in different parts of the country… Port-of-Spain, East, South and Tobago.
They’ve varied from runs to mark personal milestones, to big corporate runs for charity by firms such as ANSA McAL, Scotiabank and Guardian Life. Small firms, credit unions, medical organisations, the University of the West Indies, secondary schools and the Ministry of Health have also gotten in on the act.
Over the past few editions of Fitness Weekly, we’ve provided a guide on kitting out for the road. We started at the bottom. The base. Shoes, which bear the body’s load, and are the most important choice of gear you will make.
You can revisit those pieces online: Getting Ready for the Road Parts I and II. Let’s talk about the other essentials.
Running shorts
These have evolved massively over the years. Runners typically wore the shortest shorts, the three-inch variant. The other lengths are five, seven and nine inches (which for most of us are knee length or below).
The short shorts are meant to facilitate unimpeded strides and to prevent friction and chafing. If you run a long-enough distance, you begin to notice the inseam of the shorts and it starts to chafe.
You can avoid that by wearing short tights underneath the shorts, or the short tights alone.
Today, long and short tights seem to be more popular. Many of them have side pockets or back zip pockets to hold phones and keys. Tights prevent chafing better than shorts. It is noticeable that the top runners in the prestigious marathon races (London, New York, Boston) seem mostly to wear short tights these days.
Fanny packs
The storage issue brings us to fanny packs, the carrier things we clip round our waist to carry our phones and keys. I’ve made the mistake of coming to races without having on-body storage for keys and phones. You may want to bring a little cash. Run and walk events don’t have places or spaces for stowage.
Running with your phone in your hand is fine if you’re not seriously chasing times and you want to capture your moments; but it becomes a drag when you need to receive bottled water along the route. You could leave your phone locked in your car if you drove to the venue, but then you couldn’t take post-race photos. Car keys and fobs you have to take with you.
One time I put my pinkie finger through the key ring and clutched the fob as I ran. Not ideal. Get a fanny pack or pair of running tights with secure pockets. Thigh pockets on tights work well. Back or side pockets on shorts should ideally be zippered, so that your stuff doesn’t fall out.
Losing your car key fob somewhere along a 5K route is a recipe for trauma.
Sunglasses, caps and visors
Many runs and walks are in the early morning, 6am and earlier. Those are the conditions that runners tell me they enjoy the most.
Afternoon races can mean dealing with hot sunshine. We know that we’re having a sweat, but running while facing a still-hot sun in the late afternoon can be uncomfortable.
Bring a pair of sunglasses. Sports sunglasses by brands such as Oakley work best. The frames are mostly plastic, and they’re meant to take a fall and a bit of a beating.
Keep your more fashionable and less durable pairs for the beach or for styling up yourself on a day out. Generally, you should be able to comfortably place sports sunglasses on your forehead or the back of your head, and they’d stay securely in place. If you need a case or need to fold them into the top of your shirt, you’ve got the wrong pair.
Polarised are better, for the protection of your eyes; and for discreetly checking out the scene around you.
Sun visors work well, as do light baseball-style caps that are made for sweaty activity. I have done hot sun runs in a cap, sunglasses and with a white towel draped over my head. And don’t forget sunscreen!
Wearables
Smartwatches and activity trackers and bands are not essential, but many people like to track their progress, as well as monitor other vital things like heart rate and calorie burn. A wearable can tell you if a particular km split is slow, and if you need to pick up speed to hit your PB.
Finally, remember to have fun on your run–whether you’re going solo round the block or park, or taking part in run/walk events with friends and co-workers. And choosing your gear is not just a matter of practicality… aesthetics matter as well.
Wearing nice stuff motivates us, and makes us feel good about ourselves.
