McGyver or Red Green

A few weeks ago the armband that holds my ipod disintegrated. It's been in a state of steady decline for a few months now. Luckily it fell apart just after I left on a run a couple weeks ago so I was able to drop it back off at home rather than running with it. I've been running sans music on many of my runs since then. On the short runs I have no problem, but on the long solo runs I need the extra bit of music to drown out my own thoughts.

With the half marathon this weekend, i've been working on finding a new solution to my problem. I own a generation 2 ipod nano. I remember having to search long and hard to find the armband that just fell apart. I bought an armband for a generation 5 ipod in January hoping that it would work. It doesn't cut it. I've spent at least 10 minutes surfing the web  gone to great lengths searching for a replacement without success.

A solution came to me yesterday as I was running while holding my ipod in my hand. It must have been the flash memory that is installed in it that spoke to me. I remember the thought came to me "If only I had a clip, then I could clip it on like a shuffle." That was pure inspiration right from Apple HQ itself.

Today I set out to implement the plan myself. I was going through my list of required items: Sturdy clip (probably something out of metal), adhesive of some kind...hmmm... duct tape, super glue, Liquid Nails, Epoxy, Might Putty. With my adhesive choice narrowed down I was off to find a clip around the house. After another 10 minutes great length of searching, I stumbled across an old name badge that had a magnetic back instead of a pin.

Two minutes of working with it an my hands-free ipod is now in business. In fact, I don't even have to have an armband. I'm definitely feeling this was a McGyver fix-it. If I had used duct-tape, a used tired and some bailing wire then for sure it would be Red Green.

Just so you put your minds at ease. The warning on the magnet covers my bases on a couple issues.

1. It is a Green Magnet (it even says so on the green label) so environmentalists should be happy with my choice.

2. The caution on the magnet says that I shouldn't use this with a pacemaker. Since I am Pacemaker free there should be no interference with the electrical field around the iPod or the manufacturers would have said something, right?