Accessories Love

Today I received a request from Brooks to participate in a survey.  It involved questions about running accessories and my purchase history.  It was a real eye opener!  One question asked which running accessories I used. Well.... I checked off every single one except one!  It was a list of 12 or so items.  Yikes!  I didn't consider myself such a runner geek but I guessing am.  I felt somewhat validated that I was able to say that I use a majority of those items frequently.  Money worth spent.

But on the flip side, I have a ton of shoes that I rarely ever wear.  I bought them on a whim or it was a shoe that had worked for me in the past so I bought a couple pair as "spares".  Then I get injured because of the shoe thus they are then collecting dust.  

It makes wonder if this is the case with most runners or am I just a sucker for the next, best accessory.  It is said that all you need to run is a pair of shoes.  I laugh in their face;).  The great marketing arm of running has sucked me in.  I wonder - do I need all this stuff? I remember when I first started this sport and I was naive to the accessories offered and I did fine.  BUT my goals and running have changed dramatically.  I can definitely say I am more committed and goal oriented.  I try to have some type of plan for the year whether it be a goal race or races.  These goals are more challenging every year.  This year I have my eye on a 50k.  I haven't fully committed to the race (aka haven't registered yet..) but it is out there.

So I'm rambling a bit.  I guess my point is - do our running accessories become more complicated as we progress in our running experience?  For me, I utilize almost all my stuff.  I can visualize myself without it but I think it would put me out of my comfort zone.  Is that sad?