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We Run DC! The Nike Women’s Half Marathon in Review.

| cheriarmour

I’ve been living in my car (my new car!) for like the past week.  Not like literally, I still have a beautiful little apartment downtown, but I’ve been riding around like a nutjob for days and days.  To the point where I actually thought listening to Rush Limbaugh might be an interesting change of pace.  UGH WRONG GURL.  First I headed home.  Then to Winston to take care of some bidness.  And finally, I made the 4-hour trek to Washington, DC, and began my weekend.  We did a bunch of un-Nike-related things, some of which included eating my weight in delicious food, losing house-keys in a cab, and participating in a super cool Lupus Walk on Saturday morning.

This is one of my best friends, Scott. I stayed with him, and he showed me around beautiful DC. I'm lucky to have a friend like him.
This is one of my best friends, Scott. I stayed with him, and he showed me around beautiful DC. I’m lucky to have a friend like him.

As a side note, I’m completely, madly, deeply in love with Washington, DC.  I live in Raleigh.  I’ve had a rough relationship with Raleigh.  Story time!  I moved here for a guy (and for graduate school).  The relationship ended disastrously, and here I was, sort of stuck in a city where I knew no one.  So my solution was to take a job in Pennsylvania, attempt to transfer to Pitt to finish my graduate studies, and move on with my life.   But my mom, whom I typically don’t listen to (do us kids ever listen?), encouraged me to stick it out.  “You can’t run away from your problems.  Everywhere I go, there I am.  Do you know what that means?”  Ugh.  She was right.  So I came back.  Made a few more friends, and began to find my place here.  I still have days where I’m not sure about the city, where I’m not sure if I fit it in.  The loudness of New York never left me.  I teach Zumba.  I speak like Hilary Banks, but I wear my locs long and natural.  I think I confuse people. So I’m just not sure.  So you can imagine my heartbeat going a-flutter when I came to a city where the black girls look like me.  Wear bright colors and long Senegalese twists.  They ride bikes.  They love dogs.  Everyone runs.  I love it!

This is the brunch spot we hit after the Lupus Walk. The food was incredible. I fear, if I ever moved to DC, I'd become 500 pounds.
This is the brunch spot we hit after the Lupus Walk. The food was incredible. I fear, if I ever moved to DC, I’d become 500 pounds.

So Saturday afternoon, we metroed and hoofed over to Georgetown, where packet pickup was held.  The line?  Let’s not talk about it.  But it moved quickly and pretty smoothly. The expo, held in a tent in Georgetown, could have been super cool, but it was hot, and I don’t do well in small, hot, ill-ventilated tents with everyones breath just like, combining in the same space.  I find that absolutely foul, and I think it could have been done better, and in a bigger space.  But everything else?  Cool as heck.

Nike erected this like, street-length billboard with all of our names on it.  So 15,000 women’s names were plastered in Georgetown, and my name was one of them.  Super cool to see.  And it was doubly cool to see a bunch of women with a smile of their faces.  Score 1 for Nike for making us feel special.

My name came riiiight at the end, so it was split in two pieces. But Cherisse definitely ran!
My name came riiiight at the end, so it was split in two pieces. But Cherisse (my guh-ment name) definitely ran!

Race day.  I metroed down to Pennsylvania Avenue, where the start line was.  Pre-race chatter makes me nervous, so I put my headphones in, and listened to Gustavo Lima sing me a “Balada” while women buzzed around me, scrambling to get into their pace groups.  The way pace groups were done was pretty sweet too.  We were identified by these colored bracelets which identified our pace, and getting into corrals was super smooth.  I glided into my pace group, and hunkered down to start to run for a long time.  My first bought of tears during the race?  When the National Anthem was sung.  I’m not a stupid emotional idiot either, I saw other women beginning to tear up.  It was sung beautifully, and it was a lot of our first races since Boston.  We felt…united?  The race started.  And I became emotional again when I realized the coolness, and the gravity of 15,000 women (and a few guys), running down the streets of the District, with the Capitol building as a backdrop.  As we ran, Nike had organized cool bands.  A go-go band in the tunnel.  Marching bands.  A Chinese New Year Themed parade.  Beautiful, inspirational signs.  A river.  It was so beautiful that I marveled a number of times at how lucky I’d been to get into the lottery for this race.  And I could not stop smiling.

Here’s where I screwed up, though.  I’d wanted to do well in the race, even though I’d lied and told everyone I was just going to take this one nice and easy.  I’m competitive by nature, and I’m not sure why I said that.  But in my head, I wanted to break 2 hours.  So I’d assumed that this race would be like a small-town race, just like how it was in Raleigh.  But 15,000 women and 1,200 are totally different.  And my plan to start at the back of my pace group and work my way up was a profoundly stupid one.  After 3 slow miles, I realized that I’d have to do some work to make it to the finish line in under two hours.  So I had to push.  And push.  And push some more to continue hitting under 9 minute miles to make it to that finish line.  So I talked myself through about 10 super fast miles.  I told myself I could eat Nutella.  I told myself I could go to the medical tent and get hydrated.  I told myself I could eat bread.  I told myself that people were counting on me.  And I did it.  1:59:57, with my fastest mile being a 7:36 around mile 12, when I saw a clock and got a little nervous that I wouldn’t make it.  I’m sore as heck from running like I stole things.

My final verdict on the Nike Women’s Half Marathon?  Worth it.  A stellar race.  My only complaint is that the expo was in a frighteningly small space.  It was gross in there.  But women.  The weather.  The scenery.  The history of DC just existing all around us?  Pure magic.  So….

What's our finishers gift?
What’s our finishers gift?

GURRRRLL let me tell you.

That's Tiffany babe. They gave us a Tiffany necklace. Handsome boys gave us a Tiffany necklace.
That’s Tiffany babe. They gave us a Tiffany necklace. Handsome boys gave us a Tiffany necklace.

And are you wondering what 15,000 beautiful women look like?

photo (6)

True beauty. Ladies, you better WERQ.

Death of the best bra ever :(

| cheriarmour

Y’all missed me?  I bet.  I’m the friggin brightest spot in your day, right?  So I was at the Inaugural Nike Women’s Half Marathon in DC, which I will tell you awllll about later.  Give you a little preview though, it was good!

So onto the stuff.

Juno

I pulled my laundry out, pre-race, and LOOK just LOOK, look, at what I found!  One of the hooks broke off of my Juno, the best bra ever, leaving me fairly braless for my race.  Whatever, I made it work.

The story behind the bra?  This bra really kind of changed things for me.  So mid grad school, I was hired to teach Zumba at the best place in the whole world, a little slice of heaven, Camp Pocono Trails, a weight loss camp nestled in the Poconos.  (If you ever watched “Fat Camp” on MTV, you’ve seen where we were).  I felt so weird about my body.  I wasn’t in great shape, and my boobs (sorry boys) were the bane of my existence.  My mother, whom I swore was so wrong, convinced me not to go for a reduction, citing that “You’re reading all those magazines and Rihanna looks like a little boy.  Is that who you want to look like?!?!”  A roommate of mine who was endowed similarly told me to go to Omega, and get this bra.  It was the first bra I’d ever found for girls like me, with a large chest, that would protect, compress, and not make me feel like a big fool, flopping down the street, as I struggled to get on the health train.

The bra took me through that summer.  It traveled with me to classes, certifications, licensures.  It ran down the street with me shirtless, making sure nothing fell out of place.  I sweated.  I doubted.  I accomplished.  The bra is actually a little big, beacause I did’t by a new when I lost a few pounds.  And now, I think it’s time to let the bra go.  Bras shouldn’t see a birthday, and this guy saw three.  So RIP, Juno.  I’m not ready to throw it out yet.  Should I have it framed?

 

 

Fish McBite

| cheriarmour

Let me be clear.  I abhor, 100% abhor fast food.  I work as a fitness instructor, and fast food, in mass quantities, does terrible things to the human body.  That said, it is possible to eat okay when you’re on the road, and we’ll get to that eventually.  But for now…

I would be a lying sack of poo if I were to tell you I wasn’t curious when, just before Lent (say hello to this former Catholic!) McDonald’s launched something that sounded so horrifying, that I just couldn’t pass it up.  So for this years Lenten promises, you not only have the Filet-o-Fish (the square of fish doused in a dollop of tarter and blown with a square of out-of-place American cheese), but you have McDonald’s Fish McBites to choose from as well!  You lucky stiff!  

I have not seen in the inside of  McDonald’s for years.  But rest assured, nothing has changed.  It still smells weird.  You still order, wait 10 years for them to cook your fries, and look on with feigned indifference as the employees laugh and joke just a little too close for your liking to your food.  The other patrons look at you with curiosity, as they wonder why a skinny, sweaty, 5’8″ girl still wearing gym tech fabrics is in McDonald’s.  And you’ll still peek in the back so you can make sure no one is licking your food before they box it up.

So I ordered the Fish McBites. I ordered fries to make this a really healthy night.

McBites 1

And with a little apprehension, I dug in.

McBites

The bad news: 

  • They taste like fish sticks.  If you’re not 5, this can be extremely off-putting.  
  • Calorically speaking, don’t wasted your calories on this combo.  In life, there are some other fish options that are way tastier, and with way more nutritional value.  Get your Omega-3s elsewhere.
  • After eating legit fries for a while, these fries are nowhere near as good as a nice steak fry or a sweet potato fry from a pub.  Super disappointing.

The good news:

  • The song that they advertise these with is still hawt. (“Fishay fishaaaay”)
  • They come in a box.  Which I feel is neat.
  • The fish actually on the inside of the breading is decent, for MacDoh-quality fish.

The Verdict?

If you’re Catholic, and you eat Fish on Fridays during Lent, skip em.  They’re just not that good for being a bajillion calories.  You want a similar quality fish stick?  Trust the Gorton’s Fisherman, and pop them thangs in the oven.  Truthfully, it’s probably a terrible idea to be bangin with fast food, and especially fast food seafood.  Do a tuna over some salad, and you, and your tummy, will be much happier.

Underwears!

| cheriarmour

We’ve done a post on bras, nutrition, winter clothing, hair, and how could I forget the most important piece?  The rundies!

http://www.oiselle.com/shop/rundies

Carly Makeup

So Carly (remember Carly?) tweeted the above link the other day, sorta tongue-in-cheek. We both giggled because even though the idea is sorta cute, (who wouldn’t think little panties with running-inspired print wasn’t), we were both absolutely baffled at the fact that they were cotton. Like. Ew?

But if you feel baffled by my disdain for cotton rundies, let me be your guide.  What should I look for in runderwear (rundies)?  **Ladies only**. Sorry fellahs, I don’t know what you need 😦 perhaps I’ll let one of my runner man friends expound on this thought one of these days.

  • Cotton is rotten.  At least in this case, it is.  (In the case of running socks as well).  In these cases, quite unfortunately, the last thing you want is cotton.  It turns rough and pilly when washed or wet, and will chafe the heck out of your skin.  Those little cotton numbers from Aerie are so adorable and extra flattering in real life, but in running life, they’re chafey, and they cause the worst pantylines ever.  Just because you work out doesn’t mean you suddenly become an idiot and think it’s acceptable for you to have pantylines everywhere.  And those are the worst in a pair of tights.  Worse comes to it, just go without for a short workout.  The ONLY exception is when you’re wearing a pair of serious compression shorts.  They’re so tight, they sort of smush the underwear lines into you, and creates this fake seamless thing.  Just go with it.
  • In a pair of running shorts, you can ditch the underoos.  A good quality pair of running shorts usually comes with a liner built in.  The liner is built to keep you running light, and will hold everything in.  The first time you ditch the undergarments in a pair of running shorts, it may feel super weird, but let me assure you, it will feel and look a lot weirder if you try to double layer the underwear with the liner.  
  • Hanes makes these seamless underwear things.

Hanes Seamless Bikini

They’re $10.97 for a three-pack, and they come really really tiny and stretch when you slip them on. The only downside? They’re not super absorbent, and if you’re super sweaty, that just won’t work.  But for a shorter workout, these will work just fine.

  • Moving Comfort doesn’t just have the widest variety of the most supportive sports bras in the world, they also do rundies.  They have them in bikini variety…

moving-comfort-workout-bikini-ss

As well as in thong variety.  Whatever floats your boat…

MCWB2-BK-1

In both black and white.  And nude too but nude annoys me because there’s never like a black nude that makes any sense.  Both options are pretty seamless, and super absorbent.  I will completely honest with you, however.  The price is wrong.  At $16 a pair, it’s kind of hard to own a pair of these without hiring a bodyguard to make sure that nothing happens to it.  But in a race situation when you’re spending 4 hours on a course, you may as well invest in something that won’t cause chafing, right?

But the key before race day is to try things out.  Moving Comfort isn’t necessarily the only company that makes a more seamless technically fabricked undergarment, however, it will depend on you and your shape as to what feels good.  Happy Tails! 😉

Q: Are black toenails just a part of marathon living?

| cheriarmour

I have gotten this question at least once a week from readers and customers combined.

For some unholy reason, folks have been washed into thinking that black toenails, or toenails that fall off are just a part of life when you’re running a marathon.  Or a half.  Or in some freaky cases, every time you do a long run.

So let’s put this thing in reverse.  When is it normal for your toenails to fall off?  The first answer is never.  Second, if you’ve ever slammed your toe in a door, or had it run over by some sort of vehicle before, usually the toenail that takes the biggest impact will turn black and eventually fall off.  It sounds hideous because it actually is.

So why would it make any sense that this should happen when you’re running long distances?

If you’re running in a shoe that’s too small, and a LOT of you are unwittingly doing just that, you may feel fine for a 3, 4, or even 5 mile run.  But do much more than that, and your feet, which will naturally swell as you pound them for miles and miles (increased blood flow to that extremity), will cause the toenail of the longest toe to start hitting the end of that shoe.  It sometimes will start as a toenail just getting a little sore.  And in a longer run situation, say a half-marathon, the toenail, which has repeatedly been slammed into the end of the shoe, will sometimes turn black, and fall off.  I’ve seen it happen to more than one toe, as well.

Bottom line, a lot of you are wearing shoes that are too small, and running around and thinking that it’s normal for your feet to have no breathing room.

The solution?  Next time you’re in for a shoe fitting, or next time you’re in a store with a Brannock device, (one of the foot measurey things), measure your foot.  That is your dress shoe size.  So for driving shoes, heels, wedges, and flats, you may wear that size because you’re not going to run a marathon in a pair of leopard ballet flats.  Then go up a half to a full size for your running shoes.  The way to measure if you’ve done it right?  Strap those running shoes on, and sitting in a chair, firmly tap your heels on the ground.  Then, stand up, bend over, and SHAKE DAT THANG.  Nope, kidding.  Bend over, and feel how much space there is between your longest toe and the end of your shoe.  You should have a thumb to half a thumbs width, and you should be able to easily curl your toes over with no difficulty.  Finally, don’t be dumb and get a shoe that’s like 8 sizes too huge here.  If you’re sloshing all over, the shoe is too large, and you need to reel it in.

So the final answer?  It is not normal for you to be getting sore black toenails after a long run or a race, and if you are, it’s time to reevaluate what the heck you’re wearing on your feet.

 

 

The story behind my thinking glasses. (The Tifosi Vogel Chronicles)

| cheriarmour

Right by our desks at work is a Tifosi sunglass display.  And I’ve been known to, when I’m having a little trouble focusing on things at work, pluck one particular lens off the display, the Vogel, and continue my work.  The glasses have been known to improve my focus, help my dance moves, and least important of all of these, shield my eyes from the sun when it starts to blind us from reflecting off the cars.  So imagine my shock and horror, when, after the lenses hadn’t sold for a few months, the Tifosi representative came to take them and ship them back to Tifosi.  I nearly cried, until he gave me the glasses as long as I promised to hustle some Tifosi.

So today was the latest in the morning I’ve run in about a month, and look at what sort of weather we’re having!

weatha

Purrfect! Meow, I like it!  Except, about 5 miles in, I had to hang a loop back to my apartment to fetch the thinking glasses because I was squinting so hard in the gorgeous weather.

Vogel

Is that Jennifer Lopez?

Nope. It’s me!  (And I look completely naked from this angle, but I promise I’m not).  So the important stuff.  What is the difference between an expensive pair of running/cycling sunglasses like these ones and a big cool pair from Target?  Something from Target may look super cool, but a lens from the twirly thing in Target is missing some key elements that you need from a running/cycling pair, like this Tifosi one.  First, it’s not going to hug your face.  If you’re going to be active, you need a lens that sort of wraps around, the way a race car driver’s would.  Second, this lens has hydrophillic rubber at the temple and at the nose that prevents the lens from slipping and sliding all over the place.  I’m pretty sure those parts are adjustable too, but I’m not that handy, and I don’t feel like breaking a tool out.  It feels fine to me!  But when you run in a regular lens, they generally won’t have that piece, and they’ll slide down your nose and flop all over your ears.  Third, this lens will block the wind, which is pretty important for you lucky ducks with regular eyes. For those of you with contacts and allergies like me, wind blockage is key to prevent dry contact syndrome in the middle of your run.  And finally, these lenses are vented. In regular people terms, that means that they won’t fog up, which is a biggie, especially when you’re sweating and breathing all heavy.

The best part about all of this?  You can find a pair that doesn’t look dumb.  So save the cute Ray-Bans and the cheap Target glasses for the beach, and hit your runs (or cycles) with one of these sturdy pairs!

Q: You’re running a marathon….so why don’t you ever run 26.2 miles in your training?

| cheriarmour

I feel like I’ve been asked this question about a bazillion times since I started this marathon training thing.  I may have even wondered it myself prior to buckling down and doing the training.

But the training involves me running about 4 times a week, one long run, and then 3 others.  The long runs never go over 20 miles, and I just did my 20-miler last week.  And folks seem beyond puzzled.  So we chatted about it at work.  I did my research.  And I bring to you the answer.

I don’t really know.  That’s just what the training told me to do so I did it.

Landreth
Chilly day here in Raleigh! This is the Asics Landreth. Great shoe, right? Well it’s SO great that they’ve decided to discontinue it. ::side eye:: As far as a shoe family, it fits right in with the Brooks Ghost, the Saucony Ride, the Nike Pegasus, and the Adidas Glide as far as feel/shape/the fact that’ it’s neutral. And it’s yellow!

Sike.  So you can search high and low for marathon training programs.  Generally, most will be something like mine.  Some of the more advanced programs, for folks who may be more experienced and more elite may call for you to do maybe two 20-milers in the course of training.  But I’d be surprised if you could find a legitimate training program that would tell you to run over 22 miles.  Here’s why.  For one, there’s no training for 26.2 miles quite like a marathon.  Second, and this is coming from pretty seasoned pros, 20 miles is all well and good.  Much more than that for a simple training run, and you are shredding your body and legs.  And your body will need a long long time to recover from that.  So the deal is, if you’re training along with me for a marathon, follow your training program.  And though it may feel counter intuitive once you begin to taper (OMG, my mileage is decreasing?!), there’s a method to the madness.  On race day, you’re supposed to be rested, refreshed, and raring to go.  And the only way you do that is to get your super long runs out of the way about a month out, and then starting to let your body rest, heal, and hydrate for the big day.  How do you prepare for childbirth?  How do you prepare for your wedding day?  You get ready.  Read the books, do your training, and you talk to people who’ve done it.  Now I hope you guys can deal with the crazy as taper madness begins to descend on my household!

Why my living room looks like a cheap motel.

| cheriarmour

Motel

(Sorry not running-related. So arrest me!) Instead of going out to socialize with friends on a Friday night like any normal 25-year-old would, I found myself engaging in my latest passion, burning candles, dusting, and finishing off the big show by vacuuming. I could literally hear drunk kids wandering around outside, but the thought of wandering around in the cold really didn’t appeal to me in the slightest. So I was trying to get a jelly donut stain off my slip cover for my couch (ugh, just don’t ask), when I remembered, my couch is a pull-out!

Generally pull-out couches are tacky and a pain in the butt to move because they’re SO heavy, that even when you try and sell them on Craigslist, normal people won’t come pick them up. But, my connection to pull-out couches spans miles and memories.

So when I was a kid, we lived in this tiny house in Long Island. And my mother has decent decorator’s sense now, but in the 90s we had this horrific set of furniture that was sort of fern and beach themed? Like it was this heavy heavy wood material, again too heavy for anyone to want to really move, and the pattern was this leafy business. I’m not sure how we acquired it or why we had it.  (As an aside, that heavy furniture would later save our lives when, after we moved to North Carolina, we were almost killed by a distracted driver who drove through our living room). I swear to you, I’m not making a word of this up.  Anyhoo, as a special treat like on some Friday night, my mom let us (and it just would’ve been me and Deb, Kimmy would probably have been too little, and my brother wasn’t born yet), pull out the bed from this terrible couch and have a sleepover party! Seriously, as a kid, this was just as good as getting to stay in a hotel, without bedbugs or germs!

So to tie it all back in, I was cleaning, remembered that the couch pulled out, and set up for the most epic pull-out couch hotel party of life. Unfortunately, the only clean sheets I had didn’t match, and for some reason, the bedspread is Africa themed. Don’t judge.  Rather, turn your living room into a sleepover party and see if you don’t wake up the happiest camper in the world!