Running Topless

Wow… you sure clicked on that link really fast. Well get your mind out of the gutter and let me clarify the title of this post. When I say topless, I’m referring to this:

Post Chicago Rock 'n Roll Half with Hodester

So no, not literally running/racing naked... which I know is also out there.

But let’s rewind really quick. How was everyone’s 4^th? Mine pretty much involved this:

Boat

beer

Being Awesome.

I’m glad Andrew has embraced his role of being my full-time photographer.

As he always says, "Anything for the blog babe."

Anyways, back to this topless topic. The morning of the 4^th I went out for a 10 miler; with New York only 4 months out, I feel a need to slowly start increasing the mileage. As everywhere else in the country, it was hot. So without really thinking twice I threw on my shorts and a sports bra and headed out the door.

I can’t really say that I felt the love.

I’ve never had an issue running sports-bra only.  It was something that I embraced literally 8 months out of the year while living in Colorado, and almost every summer while training at school down in central Illinois.

I guess that I should keep in mind that it was a holiday, so the trails were busy with families/couples enjoying a holiday stroll. But honestly from the looks that I was getting, you would have thought that I was running with a swastika painted on my stomach. And just to be clear, I most definitely was not.

Post-run. No swastika.

Since it’s my nature to make an effort to acknowledge others out on the trail, I smiled/nodded/waved etc. to most people I passed. In total I got one smile back from an elderly couple and a creepy half smile/excessively long stare from a hoodlum on his sweet BMX bike, chains and all. All other acknowledgement fell somewhere in the realm of death stares.

source

Now that's a death stare if I've ever seen one. And no, I did not see Michelle Obama out on the trail.

Is this an area-specific issue? Perhaps even community specific? Or is it just me being extra sensitive? I’m just curious. Just as men are able to run shirtless, I’ve never seen anything wrong with women doing it too, as long as the twins are strapped down appropriately.

I’d love to hear thoughts on this topic….

In other news, it’s Friday. I’m sitting on 42 miles for the week, 9 of them were biked. I plan on putting on a mini made-up triathlon for myself tomorrow morning to finish up my 50 FOR 50 challenge.  More on that tomorrow.

Enjoy your weekend. I wish every week was broken up by a mid-week day off, don’t you?

Cheers!