Do you run with your smart phone?

Interest dad wrote:

What's your hang-up with responsible people?

What's your hang up with absurd definitions of responsibility?

There is no universal requirement that father is immediately reachable, at all moments. If you see acknowledgement as irresponsible you seem to be the one with a hang up.

~ wrote:

many appear to have a general dislike for being connected (misanthrope runners on LR? - shocker).

Let me get this straight: You see not having a telephone on your person at all moments as being disconnected?

I spend all day happily interacting with colleagues and others and all evening with family. I sure as heck don't see leaving the phone at home for an hour morning run as preventing me from being "connected" to the world, let alone a "misanthropic" preference.

I didn't know this was a new standard. I guess I'm old-fashioned at 36!

A Dad wrote:

Interest dad wrote:

What's your hang-up with responsible people?

What's your hang up with absurd definitions of responsibility?

There is no universal requirement that father is immediately reachable, at all moments. If you see acknowledgement as irresponsible you seem to be the one with a hang up.

As a dad, I'll just chime in to say that this might be hard to understand if you don't have kids. It isn't that a dad is worried that he can't be reached in the event of an emergency, it is that he 100% WANTS to be reached in the event of an emergency. So it's less about responsibility and more about wanting to be there when your family needs you.

Captain Oblivious wrote:

A Dad wrote:

Didn't you say that you put your phone in a sock, in a ziplock bag, in the front of your shorts?

Correct. Is that a problem?

The ziplock bag protects the phone from rain, falling in the creek and ball sweat.

The sock allows the phone to be suspended somewhat between my shorts and underwear.

I wear it to the left.

Not a problem at all.

A smartphone in a ziplock bag in a sock between your shorts and underwear just sounds bulky. And you keep saying it's not bulky.

There is no way that guy wears a phone in a bag in a sock in his shorts, just to the left of his balls. WTF? Who would do that?

Some reasons why you need to be reached and carry a phone, witnessed car accident, respond to work asap, break your leg need a ride, family emergency, wife wants milk on your way home, music, maps if u get lost. take a selfie. I am not as fast as I was but I can still manage a phone and still do an 8 mile run at 6:40 pace. the only time I don't have a phone if I am doing a track workout.

fleetest wrote:

Many of the arguments against carrying a phone seem to be a reaction against gear or devices rather than a dislike of music or convenience or safety. From this view a phone is a metaphor for fanny-pack. Would these same people run at night without a light? Unlikely.

The same people who are against carrying a phone probably dress like triathletes, with calf sleeves and arm warmers etc.

I run at night with no light because I have excellent night vision.

I have poor ability to telepathically communicate though, so I carry a phone.

Captain Oblivious wrote:

The same people who are against carrying a phone probably dress like triathletes, with calf sleeves and arm warmers etc.

Says the guy who wears underwear under his running shorts with a suspended ziplock back/sock contraption holding his phone.

Another Dad wrote:

As a dad, I'll just chime in to say that this might be hard to understand if you don't have kids. It isn't that a dad is worried that he can't be reached in the event of an emergency, it is that he 100% WANTS to be reached in the event of an emergency. So it's less about responsibility and more about wanting to be there when your family needs you.

No, it's still hard to understand even if you have kids. Heck, I had to bury one of my young kids. I know all about worry and emergencies.

If you want to carry a phone, be my guest -- I don't care. But don't claim you do so because you are responsible or as you claim "to be there when your family needs you".

jimmy duke wrote:

Captain Oblivious wrote:

The same people who are against carrying a phone probably dress like triathletes, with calf sleeves and arm warmers etc.

Says the guy who wears underwear under his running shorts with a suspended ziplock back/sock contraption holding his phone.

Of course I wear underwear. Any dude with more than the most miniscule twig and berries should.

But you can't see the phone it so it's like it isn't happening.

Kind of like being a d-bag on the inside but not letting it out.

But yeah, the phone is not bulky. About like carrying a powerbar.

A Dad wrote:

"might never have run due to fear of an emergency and not being found"

The level of fear some of you people live in is amazing to me.

Agreed. These are the same people (or parents) who went nuts when Lenore Skenazy let her 9 year old ride the NYC subway alone with a metrocard, some quarters and no cell phone:

She wrote a great book:

Captain Oblivious wrote:

the phone is not bulky. About like carrying a powerbar.

WTF smartphone do you have that weighs less than a Powerbar?

Captain Oblivious wrote:

The same people who are against carrying a phone probably dress like triathletes, with calf sleeves and arm warmers etc.

I run at night with no light because I have excellent night vision.

I have poor ability to telepathically communicate though, so I carry a phone.

You're funny, Captain, I'll give you that. :)

I run in shoes and shorts, and a top of varying length depending on the temperature.

The only times in my life I have run with phone was when my wife was at term with our first kid, and realistically even that was unnecessary.

I was raised to be very self reliant. I was a latch key kid, I was home alone after school and much of the summer while my parents were at work. Being 9 and going somewhere alone on my bike was no big deal. My parents had no idea where I was, though I knew they were at work. Sure, I could call them in an emergency, but they were 40+ minutes away from home.

I don't have a phone myself, and I can't understand the mentality of NEEDING to be constantly connected. Sh!t can and will happen in life, it's not about how fast you can call someone, it's about how you can react yourself. The dozens of scenarios posted in this thread about things that might happen leave me laughing. Drop the phone, go for a run, enjoy your life. The problems will be there when you return.

A Dad wrote:

WTF smartphone do you have that weighs less than a Powerbar?

If I drop a Powerbar on a run, it is still functional.

If I drop my $699 Samsung Galaxy S5, all bets are off..

Rme wrote:

Some reasons why you need to be reached and carry a phone, witnessed car accident, respond to work asap, break your leg need a ride, family emergency, wife wants milk on your way home, music, maps if u get lost. take a selfie. I am not as fast as I was but I can still manage a phone and still do an 8 mile run at 6:40 pace. the only time I don't have a phone if I am doing a track workout.

These are reasons you WANT to be reached and carry a phone. And that's OK. But don't tell yourself that you ever NEED to be reached. That's just egomania.

witnessed car accident - OK, fine. I have yet to witness a car accident in a totally isolated area and need to use a phone, but fine. You want to carry a phone in case you witness a car accident in a place devoid of other humans.

respond to work asap - Sure. Depending on the work you might want to be reachable with no interruptions in availability.

break your leg need a ride - Oh, come on now. A genuine immobilizing medical emergency seems to have happened to one person on here, with probably tens or hundreds of thousands of runs between us posters.

family emergency - Like what real emergency? House on fire? Injury? Captain Oblivious is right to say that a person could reasonably WANT to be reached not a minute later than instantaneously in these cases, but you don't need to be.

wife wants milk on your way home, music, maps if u get lost. take a selfie - OK, now you're just getting silly. "Need"??

I'm enjoying the back and forth on this, but really I could give two sweet sharts what anyone else runs with. Carry your phone in grocery bag around your waist in case of a great selfie opportunity if you want. I just find it interesting when people have an honest belief that unlike runners in the 20th century they now NEED to carry a phone.

Captain Oblivious wrote:

I'm not sure how a phone can detract and a GPS can add to the experience of running.

See how it's all up to the individual as to what does what?

I have no desire for running to be something that needs to be tracked.

You typically wear a watch anyway when you run, so adding GPS capabilities can add to your tracking your effort without changing anything about your normal running.

To carry a phone means that you have to carry something in your hand or to affix to your body in some way that affects the free movements of your running. It changes things.

In your shorts seems odd.

I don't have a GPS watch or care to have one but I don't see how that affects your run much more than a regular watch.

I don't even like carrying keys. I'll tie one key in my laces.

I just want to run unencumbered.

Ole Timer, you said it!

The internet is just bizarre. People getting all worked up about what anonymous strangers do that has no effect whatsoever on their own lives.