#sportsbrasquad

original post: http://community.runnersworld.com/blog/sportsbrasquad

This past Saturday was the inaugural International Sports Bra Squad Day - spear headed by blogger Kelly Roberts, who does a lot of writing about having a healthy body image, which you all know I really love. 

And yeah, there's some recent controversy surrounding this woman, including marathoninvestigation catching her "banditing" a few races. I put that word in quotes, because I don't think hopping in for a segment is actual banditing, unless you are using course resources, like water and porta potties - and I get that races pay to have roads blocked off, but please. Glass houses. Stones. Get my drift? Also, Kelly is sponsored by Oiselle and CEO Sally B calls Kelly a professional athlete, even though she does not run anywhere near an elite level. Again, I could care less. Sally doesn't call her an elite athlete and the word "professional" simply means you get paid to do something. What Oiselle wants to do with their money is their and their shareholders business. I highly doubt they would be blocking any doping investigation by USADA, so that's one up on another company in my book (burrrnnnnnnn).

Now that all that BS is out of the way ... 

When I heard about #sportsbrasquad day, I figured, why the heck not? I can do one run in a sports bra. And then I found out that a local running store was hosting a group run, and immediately put it on my calendar. 

The morning of, I found myself standing around with a bunch of women I didn't know (and one that I did know), all of us nervously waiting for the moment when we would shed our security blankets, AKA, those shirts. There were questions of "Are we really going to do this?", but the second the shirts came off, there were comments of "Your sports bra is so cute!" The transformation was nearly instantaneous. 

During the run, I found myself on my own - there wasn't anyone running my exact pace, but it didn't matter. I was running in a part of my city that I love, but live too far from to run regularly. In fact, it was the very area I nearly put in an offer on for a house, and was really sad to let it go (was at the very top of my budget). On the back half of the run, however, I came across the rolling hills that I always forget are EVERYWHERE and I kept thinking how they were really generous with including hills on this route and then maybe I didn't feel so bad about not living in that neighborhood. I nearly forgot I was running without a shirt, until I had to stop for traffic. But then, I just stood as confidently as possible - and quite frankly, I didn't care that much because it was SO humid and I was sweating buckets. 

By the end of the run, I was feeling pretty darn good - actually one of the first "good" runs I've had since hitting my head - and very thirsty, hahaha. The magical part, though, was all the women just hanging out and chatting without caring that we were all still shirtless. There were even photos taken! 

The start of the run. You can find me in the purple sports bra and capris - perfectly positioned between the street sign and the streetlight post.

My Sports Bra Squad. Only knew one of these ladies, but I like to think we are squad members now.

The take away message, though, is that regardless of what you think about Kelly Roberts, her relationship with Oiselle and some of her antics, is that creating a moment for all to embrace body positivity was exactly what I needed. I may be a regular member of the Sports Bra Squad.