Enjoy this guest blog from Boise Bettie founding member, Maria Morgan. She wanted to try something new, but was smart to try the change before race day. Her trial and error is comically real and will probably bring to tears as I was, in laughing so hard as she relayed the story. Read on for a good laugh, because really, we’ve all been there!
Many of the Betties trained for the 2015 Race to Robie Creek half marathon, where this year’s theme was the Running of the Bulls. Because so many Betties were training for the race (about 15 members), my teammate Samia thought we should get outfits to go with the theme- she loves the Robie themes! Emily teamed us up with Lululemon and we were outfitted with Run: Swiftly Tech Tank in white- with the Boise Betties and Bandanna Running logos, of course- and white Pace Rival running skirts.
I had never worn a running skirt before, nor did I have any desire to do so. I do not have the body shape of someone you think of when you think of a runner so I was a little nervous about running a half marathon in a skirt. I opted for the tall-sized skirt in hopes that the slightly longer shorts under the skirt would help me avoid the dreaded “chub rub.” For those of you not familiar with these terms, chub rub is when chubby thighs rub together which can lead to chaffing. I usually wear long shorts or capris to prevent this very uncomfortable side effect of running in shorts that are too short.
A week before Robie, I gave the white running skirt a trial run at the Micron FABulous 5K. I had recently invested in some Body Glide which I liberally applied to my inner thighs just in case the shorts on the running skirt rode up during the race. It took all of 0.25 miles for the shorts to ride up on me. Luckily, the Body Glide did its job and I didn’t have any chaffing. whew! However, I did not have enough experience with Body Glide to know if I could trust it to work for 13 miles. If the Glide didn’t work, the already grueling race would be miserable. I had just a few days before the race to come up with a solution for my skirt dilemma. With three young children to care for, I didn’t have a lot of free time to shop. I looked for a solution in my closet.
First thing I found- Spanx! The form fitting, suck it in, keep it there spandex intended to go under your clothes to improve the fit. I gave Spanx a try. This particular pair of Spanx was nude colored with mid-thigh shorts and a tummy control waist the went to just below my chest. I thought, “If Spanx can prevent chub rub all-day in a dress, it can work under the running skirt, right?”. It may have the added benefit of hiding my belly a little. So, I gave the Spanx and white running skirt combo a test run in my neighborhood.
I set out on my a 5-mile run feeling fast and thin with these Spanx holding everything in. All was fine until about two miles in to the run. I started to run up a pretty big hill and I suddenly realized that I couldn’t breathe. The tummy control part of the Spanx was restricting my breathing! I couldn’t make it all the way of the hill like this, so I turned around. As I ran down the hill, I attempted to pull the tummy control portion of the Spanx down so I could breathe a little better. Once I did this though, I had this uncomfortably tight ring around my middle with the fabric annoyingly rolling up and down with each step. This was way worse, so I did my best to pull the Spanx back up despite the many cars passing me on the road. Finally, I gave up on the run at mile four. Clearly, Spanx was not the solution.
A couple of days later, on my way to the packet pick-up for Robie, I stopped by Bandanna Running and Walking to pick up my race jersey. Getchen was there and we started talking about my white running skirt problem. I told her that I wanted a longer pair of white running shorts to wear under the skirt, but I didn’t have the time to search around. Besides, how many stores would carry white running shorts (for obvious reasons, yikes!)? She chimed in saying that I should search the men’s section and we spied some men’s white boxer briefs in the store, but they were too short. Then suddenly, it hit me: I had a pair of Under Armour long, white boxer briefs at home. I purchased them when I was pregnant with my twins and I had been wearing a lot of maternity dresses. I wore the Under Armour boxer briefs under the white running skirt and they work perfectly for the entire half marathon. The solution to my problem was in my closet all along!
