Running with the girls

I am a 36 C.  Not small, but not big really.  Just enough to be very uncomfortable during anything bouncy; when I go horse back riding I wear not one but two high impact sports bras.  That's in Florida heat, on top of a sweaty horse.  Believe me, I wish there was a better choice.  Turns out, there is.

Flash forward to my 47th birthday when I decided I was going to run a 5k later this year.  I started by walking away from home for 30 minutes & then walking back along the same route (one of my goals throughout this has been to take no more than an hour a day for this & mostly that has been do-able).  By the second week, I was ready to do one minute run/one minute walk intervals.  That first time was brutal.  I had only a moderate impact bra that fit comfortably & it was far from adequate.

Once I got home I had the struggle that is getting out of a heavy-duty, strap-them-down-like-a-bullet-proof-vest style bra.  I tried to avoid looking at myself in the mirror during the whole thing.  More than once I have come in from the barn & needed A's help to pull one of those things over my head (seriously, if it gets twisted under one arm & pins the other, you are screwed); trying to pull two off, one over the other is quite the operation.  One wrong move & you are trapped in a sequence that looks more like a snake regurgitating a belly dancer than anything else.  It feels like that, too.

Later that same day, I trucked down to Sports Authority & against my nature plonked down $30 for a new high impact bra.  It is also a zip-front bra, a style I have seen of course but always thought was too stoopid to be worth the extra $$; I only got it this time because it was on a clearance rack & marked down (that's right, marked down to $30).  When this thing is on it makes me look flat-chested, except for the strange ridge that is the zipper itself. 

So the next day, I put it on & went for my intervals.  Let's just say it was not until I got all the way to the last set that I remember I had ever been bothered by bounce bounce bounce.  This gave me more opportunity to concentrate on all the other things I hate about running, but still an improvement.  When I got home & ready to shower, zzzzzzzzzzzzzip & I was free.

Since then I have gathered up all the old style, zipper free sports bras & sent them off into the world.  I have no idea if Goodwill sells slightly (too slightly) used sports bras, but there they went.  I wore & washed that first zip-front bra every day for a couple weeks until I found them (much cheaper) on-line.  I would have paid full price at Sports Authority but they have a policy against stocking anything that might sell well; I know this because I asked the cashier if this was the case & she said it does sometimes seem like that yes.