A Gift Guide For The Freshman Track Athlete

Ah, the first day of track practice. High school freshmen show up in soccer shorts with five-year-old running shoes. They nervously wait to get instructions from the coach, completely unaware of what's to come from the sport which claims to be every other sport's punishment. Help your freshmen track athlete get ahead of the game by following this gift guide. They'll be more than ready for the first day of practice. 

Short shorts and or half tights

There comes an important moment in every male runner's life when he must decide on the type of shorts he will wear when he joins the track team. Will he rock short shorts or will he squeeze into half tights while crushing those miles? Gordon and Alex debated the age old question in an episode of Sub-4, which highlighted the pros and cons of both options. 

Team Short Shorts (Alex)
-- Less fabric
-- Can double as underwear and swim trunks

Team Half Tights (Gordon)
-- "Win on the track and off the track"

If you're buying a gift for a newbie track runner, it's probably best to purchase both and let them decide. But whatever you do, don't let them make the dreaded mistake of wearing both at the same time! 

Target sports bras in every color

Back in my day (2004), Target had one or two sports bra styles in every color you could imagine. Every time my mom took me to Target, I would beg her to buy me the latest color so I could wear it to practice. It was definitely A THING. 

Kids these days have 72 styles to choose from and almost all of them are cute. If you're buying a gift for a female track athlete, you can't go wrong with purchasing any of them. 

Janky Target watch

Another beautiful thing about Target is that they sell everything you could ever want, including running watches. Save your gift recipient from the embarrassment of their coach yelling at them by giving them a running watch. The Target ones aren't fancy with GPS tracking or pace monitoring, but they'll get the job done. I may or may not still use mine. 

Lucky Socks

It's important that a newbie track athlete has standout socks to rock during meets. It builds their brand and gets them in a routine of race-day preparation. I had hideous green socks that I wore for every single race (my teammates were kind enough to not make fun of me to my face). These socks from Stance are way cooler and come in an endless supply of designs. They even have Rihanna designing socks for them! This might be a gift you also buy for yourself.