We've officially reached that time of year again. I'm considering alternatives to laundering my running clothes. Burial. Culinary torch. Rock + rope + deep water. Just to name a few.
No matter what I do, I cannot seem to get them clean. They still smell, even before a run. Why? Looking for the answer to this question on the interweb is kind of futile. It's like asking why Applebee's is still in business. There's a lot of speculation, but we may never know the truth.
I don't think this is really a summer thing - I am sure that my running clothing is no field of daisies in the winter months either. But in the summer, the instant I step outside in the hot and/or humid air all the stink molecules seem to come out on deck for a party. They must hibernate in the winter.
Last summer I tried several of the commercial products out there. Sadly, none of them actually seem to work. Not Penguin, not Win. Not even 2Toms Stink Free Sports Detergent - and I had super high hopes for that one. I am under the impression that they maybe, sort of, kinda work.. a little bit. Its really hard to tell though.
The one thing that I have had some limited success with is my shoes - washing them outside with the garden hose and dishwashing liquid, then filling them with pages of the Austin Chronicle and leaving them out in the sun to dry. After they are dry, I put sneaker balls in them. That's right - balls for sneakers. For whatever reason, this little ritual helps a lot.
I need to replicate this success with the rest of my running gear, though. I am tired of getting blasted with the funk of forty thousand miles every time I head outside for a run. I really don't care what I end up smelling like after the run. I just want to start it off kind of fresh, you know?
So this year I will pull out all the stops. I'm compiling a list of internet home brew remedies and things that other people have suggested, and random thoughts that I think might help - things I haven't tried yet. And then, I am going to try them. When I show up to run club in late July all covered in baking soda or something, just kind of understand that this is all in the name of science.
If anything produces a miracle or goes horribly awry I'll be sure to let you all know about it. No news (a likely outcome) simply means my experiments were uneventful. That, or I got lazy and gave up on it.
Oh, and by all means, if there are things which work for you, or you have some outlandish suggestion for the list, please let me know!