A Running Writing Pad
I'm trying to imagine a computer a runner could use to write poems in the middle of a distance race. Couldn't be a lap top. Couldn't be a PDA. It would need to be a hands-free suspended-in-air kind of device. Maybe something with voice recognition. The runner could wear a headset, bluetoothed to an arm-strapped recorder. My TIMEX time-distance measurement is something like that: a GPS, strapped to my shorts, that wirelessly sends speed/distance data to my watch for constant viewing.
I'm thinking about this computer for runners because yesterday was the Spirit of St. Louis Marathon and Half Marathon. Throughout the half marathon race I was having these wonderful poems flash in my head. A great way to get up a hill or beyond a momentary pain is to think poems, some of which, at the moment, seem inspirational but soon fade, like most moments of clarity, once you crest the hill or move beyond the pain. But with the runner's computer--maybe just a voice recorder, though, while running, it's easier to grunt than speak--you could later, quite possibly, see or hear that all your thoughts were garbled anyway.
How about an iPod with the recorder add-on? :-) That way you could strap your musical muse to your arm and then switch over to recorder all without the use of a headset. You would, of course, have to transcribe it later, but it's a thought.
How about an iPod with the recorder add-on? :-) That way you could strap your musical muse to your arm and then switch over to recorder all without the use of a headset. You would, of course, have to transcribe it later, but it's a thought.