The Outfit Makes the Runner, Me Thinks?

Mr. Katie and I entered into the lottery for spots to run in the 2023 Philadelphia Broad Street Run and we got in. Yay! I may have mentioned this before, and at the time I didn’t include this news in its own post, but getting into the Broad Street Run is actually pretty important to me. It probably deserved its own post.

The Broad Street Run is the largest 10 mile road race in the USA. It takes place in Philadelphia and will be the largest race that I have ever taken part in. There could potentially be as many as 40,000 people participating in it with me on Sunday, April 30.

Initially, we were really excited to get the news. Then we started training in earnest and now we are a little less excited. I should mention that Mr. Katie and I each signed up for one other run this spring before we found out that we got into the Broad Street Run. Finding out we got into the Broad Street run was a nice addition to what we had already planned. Mr. Katie is going to run in a local half marathon the week before the Broad Street Run and I have a 15k planned for the first week of April.

Additionally, the boys have their own activities and it seems these days Mr. Man keeps being invited to all kinds of parties for classmates and friends.

I know it sounds like I am complaining, and I am, sorry guys. I have been trying to count my blessings. I do believe gratitude is the secret sauce that helps to smooth over challenging swaths of life.

I do realize that just two short years ago at this time we had almost nothing on our calendar. At that time most runs still were not happening and we couldn’t score an invitation to a party or get together to save our lives. So in that respect we are very blessed.

Also I feel extremely grateful that one of my sisters has agreed to babysit Mr. Man and Preschool Nugget so that Mr. Man. This means Mr. Katie and I can stay at a hotel in Philadelphia the night before the race so we can recreate and then be up nice and early in Philadelphia on race day. I also need to remember that I am lucky that my legs work and I am healthy enough to participate in this 10 mile run. When I put it like that, I feel #grateful instead of #pulledinseveraldirectionsatonce.

The world is awake and active again and we, like most people, are engaging in it almost to an busy extent.

My family finds itself in a state right now where we frequently ask ourselves, “Did we take too much on by agreeing to sign Mr. Man up for flag football, swimming lessons, several races for us, birthday parties, playdates, library programs, extra shifts at work and school commitments.

I am working on embodying some of the things I learned during lockdown about how life can be fun at times even when you are not doing too much of anything. I want to embrace the lessons that I learned for lazing around on spring days like I wrote about three year ago when we visited the hill frequently.

So anyway, I do plan on slowing down and figuring it out how to do that of course. It is just that it is so enticing to sign up for things like races and it is exciting that other children want Mr. Man to come to their birthday parties.

In the meantime though, I think one thing that might get me excited about running my races this spring is the costumes or at least a fun running shirt. I don’t do overly elaborate of costuming for running. I sometimes have trouble even running with sunglasses on because my face gets too hot. I do like a fun shirt or even pair of tights to wear to get me excited about what I am doing.

Here are some shirts and outfits I have donned in the past. I sometimes makes shirts and sometimes I order them online. The Little Mermaid tights are from Target.com.

So anyway, writing this post has helped me come up with some ideas for running shirts or outfit concepts for the big race.

Mr. Katie mentioned that he thinks we should have costumes that go together. Perhaps, if we can agree on the same idea. I like to go with a concept that I feel very tied to. I have trouble doing something that I don’t care about. I hope Mr. Katie would like to be part of couple’s costume related to either the X-Files or Outlander. I’m kidding, mostly, but honestly, am I?

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