LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE VIDEO!

Ok, it’s late Friday night. It’s 4 days until Christmas. You panic, realizing that while you’ve been getting filthy drunk off rum-nog drinks, you forgot to get a gift for your silly distance running uncle or worse yet, your significant other who loves triathlons. Well, lucky for you, you can sit back, pour yourself another glog and bask in the brilliance of successful last minute gift giving courtesy of your favorite Ginger.

The items on this list are by no means the only choices you have, but items I hope start a dialogue with the community in finding out everyone’s favorite last-minute gifts and stocking stuffers for the athletes in their lives. I know my GF, Mile Long Legs, has her own list!

Here we go!

5.) NUTRITION: find out what sort of nutrtition your athlete uses. Be it a recovery shake, gels, salt tablets, waffles, whatever. As someone who spends at least $50/month on run grub, this kind of gift is AWESOME. Either grab the specific items at your local run store or write up a gift certificate for the website for online ordering. Easy.

4.) SOCKS: runners love socks. Runners NEED socks. Whats great about a new pair of quality socks is that the runner won’t just appreciate the pair, they’ll USE them. A LOT. My favorites are Injinji socks (the ones with separate toes). After making the switch, I haven’t looked back. Injinjis tend to run anywhere from $10-$35, so one or two pairs goes a long way. DO IT.

3.) FRAME MEMORIES: seems simple, and it is, but it’s also meaningful. I love to display my medals, but always feel that pinning one directly to the wall can look tacky. Luckily, they make shadowboxes and frames that can accomodate a bib and medal and help polish up the display for all to enjoy. I’d find a race that your athlete rocked or had an overall pleasant experience. Last thing you want to do is hang some memories from that race they had horrible stomach distress from miles 4-24. GROSS.

2.) RACE ENTRY: this was on my list last year, but makes perfect sense. Races are expensive. Help them out. Even if you don’t pay for the whole race, just paying for a small percentage makes a huge difference. Bonus points if you sign-up too and make it a duel run for awesome. Double bonus points if you buy them a beer afterwards. Triple bonus points if you make it a destination race (BIG SUR!) and pay for the vacation out as well!

1.) MASSAGE: do it. Either by a professional massage therapist that works with athletes, or by yourself. Just do it. Athletes need them and love them. Add some massage oils and this turns into a whole other gift idea that you can thank me for later.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Ginger People GINGER CHEWS: Love these. Super cheap and help with all sorts of stomach distress and nausea during long runs.

BEER: Get that athlete some delicious local craft brews by the bottle, growler, or hell, a KEG! Let them go to town on that stuff!

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed the quick list! Now get those gifts for your athlete and let me know how it goes. If you have more ideas, leave them in the comments!