The Power of the Ring

I used to play in a football league on the weekends which was so much fun.  Our team was really good and was always competitive, made the league playoffs, and won a few championships over the years.  It was really fun, but back in 2010 it caused some problems with the then fiance.  The wife and I got engaged in 2009 and spent a lot of 2010 planning our special day.  Playing football and getting married never conflicted with each other.  Until 1 day in particular which changed a whole lot.  The day before our engagement photo shoot I had a football game.  No biggie, right?  Wrong.  About 5 minutes into the game, our quarterback threw me a pass down the middle of the field and 2 defenders smothered me and deflected the ball into my fingers and ended up breaking 2 of my fingers on my left hand.  Man, was the fiance pissed since I called her from the hospital and now we had to change our photo shoot the next day.  Not good.  What was worse was that one of the fingers I broke was my left ring finger.  Yup.  That one. 

The reason this is important to this post is, the fiance and I decided we would buy a cheap "throw-a-way" ring for our actual wedding since my finger's swelling didn't fully go down.  So we couldn't get a proper wedding band since we had no idea how large my finger would be on our actual wedding day.  After doing some research, I settled on a $25 tungsten ring.  Actually, I settled on 2 rings.  One one size, and a second a different so we can decide how large my finger was on a our wedding day.  Great plan we thought.  Obviously we got married, and I have been wearing that ring for the past 3 plus years.  I surprisingly love the ring even though it was so cheap.  I love the color, the fact that its impossible to scratch, the feeling of it and a few other things. 

My old ring on Riley's newborn foot

The problem is, the ring is so damn heavy.  Plus, since my knuckle is permanently swollen, the ring gets over my knuckle but is loose around the base of my finger.  As a result, I have never worn my wedding ring when I train, race, workout, etc.  The wife hates it.  And because I work out so much, I forget to put my ring on all the time.  I even forgot to put my ring on to go to a wedding with the wife.  Talk about pissing off your significant other.  That was not a good look. 

Since then, I have been looking at alternatives to solve this problem.  I'm always jealous of people I see at races who have wedding rings on.  I just couldn't be that person. 

I did some research and came across SafeRingz.  I remember hearing about them, but the more research I did, the more I started to love the brand.  Basically, its a rubber ring that is painted the color of metallic to look like metal.  I ordered one and haven't taken it off since. 

All rubber rings

Because of the ring being rubber, I don't even notice it on my
finger.  I have completed swim, bike, run and weight workouts all with this ring on.  In some ways, I think it actually helps me during my workout.  This might sound cheesy, but since I never worked out with a ring, now that I do I look down and know what I'm training for.  When I'm out on a run and I feel my ring, I don't get as tired, I don't feel sluggish.  I know I can push myself.  It makes it seem like there is something more important than what I'm doing at that point so I tend to push myself a little harder.

There are times when the wife is a little upset that I have this ring on because its not the ring that we actually got married in, but I make her remember that the plan was always to have a replacement ring.  So maybe on important events, I'll wear my actual wedding band, but for now, I plan on wearing my SafeRingz.  I cant wait to have a race with the ring on.  I know that it will help get me to the finish line stronger.