Yesterday I was supposed to run with my neighbor. We had planned to meet at 8:30 A.M and go do a new route. Truth be told I was very excited for this run and I planned to go with her. I wanted to have a partner and I wanted to help her train for a race in October. Sadly though I hardly got any sleep and had to cancel on getting up early. It made me feel really bad and I still do. I wanted to go with her and encourage her to keep going despite what her body may be screaming as we run the three-four miles. Yet we had to postpone.
So I get up later on and realize that its raining outside. Not just sprinkling, like down pouring across the bay. I go to my dad and ask him about the weather. He told me it’s supposed to rain all day and into the weekend. We then talked a bit and made plans to go to his birthday dinner that night instead of today. After some back and forth I decided to go running around 3 p.m so I would be done, showered and ready by 4:30 at the latest. So throughout the day I did some work. I did some editing, gave my homemade gift to my Dad, and had a cup of coffee followed by a lot of water for hydration. So I decide that since it’s raining to wear a sweatshirt with my sports bra underneath, shorts, and my five-fingers. I put my phone in a plastic bag and into my fanny pack, turn on my music and set out in the rain to go do my four mile trek that is long overdue.
Now anyone who knows anything about running knows that you need to wear light clothing, light colors, and be ready to shed clothing when the heat is high. You can layer on clothes like no tomorrow but in reality you may shed half of them. I wore the sweatshirt because it was raining and I didn’t want to wear a shirt underneath because I knew that would add to the heat. Even though it’s raining, which can cool you off, it’s still Florida and the humidity is high. Around mile three I started to get too hot. My breathing was ragged and I had been pushing myself the last couple miles. I only had nine more minutes outside and then I was done. So what do I do?
I take off my sweatshirt.
I’m not the type of person that has big bouncing breasts, a belly bouncing away, other anything else that would scream that I’m trying to scar all the people in my neighborhood and yet, there is always one person who thinks that it’s a terrible thing for a women to be wearing a sports bra and shorts. Yesterday I had that moment happen. I was toward the end of the loop I was doing and I saw this old man going towards his mailbox. He was looking down and watching his steps and I was minding my own business. I had just stripped my sweatshirt off and re-situated my fanny pack, all the while running slowly so I don’t trip while I do all this. I get to him and he looks up and makes this face at my appearance and decides to say one word and one word alone
God!
Oh why yes, I would say that God did give me this body and I am pretty comfortable in it after all this time of working my ass off to lose the chubby parts of me and controlling my appetite. I wouldn’t say that God gave me the courage to lose the weight and I wouldn’t say that God did anything more than "create" me. If I believed in him then yes, I would say that God gave me everything I have. My skin, my hair, my DNA, my breasts, my legs, my eyes, everything about me but, in my mind my parents gave me this body. They created me. The way I look now was all my doing and it’s because I wanted to look this way. I wanted to feel comfortable in my skin. I wanted to be able to run four miles. I wanted to be in control of what I do and don’t eat. All I’m doing is getting outside instead of being a couch potato and to me that is a miracle considering how I used to be in school.
I’m proud of being who I am and I’m proud of how I look and if you can’t take me being in a sports bra and shorts then too bad so sad, there is nothing wrong with me running in my own neighborhood in this fashion and it’s too hot to keep the sweatshirt on. Sorry old man but you probably saw more skin then you have in the past forty years so, your welcome.
