My Marathon Outfit

As promised, I will answer the questions you post in the comments section here. Samantha, one of my favorite readers, asked many questions (which I love!) and I am answering the ones related to my outfit here.


Samantha asked:
1. what did you wear? did you get hot and have to remove layers/ obviously you wouldnt want to carry those so did you just throw them on the street and now they're lost forever? this is a personal running concern of mine.

I wore a lot of things on Sunday. I had the running outfit I planned to wear for the duration of the race, and the extra items of clothing I needed in order to keep warm. NYC Marathon runners arrive at Staten Island at 7:30 AM or earlier and they need to keep warm in the villages at Fort Wadsworth for up to 5 hours depending on arrival and wave times. It's freaking cold and we had beautiful weather. I can only imagine what runners go through when experiencing more frigid Fall temperatures.

Samantha's personal running concern is ditching layers and losing them forever. This is also a concern of mine, but you have to get over it and wearing junk that you don't want. I asked my mother to raid my father and sister's closets and give me things that I could leave behind. I wish that she was able to provide me with a swoufit (sweatsuit outfit) as stylish as these fine Italians are wearing.

They were wearing matching pants. The logo was on the bottom.

I arrived with a pair of sweats ("borrowed" from an old boyfriend many years ago), a Hanes long-sleeved shirt the laundromat shrunk, an over-sized cotton pullover (thanks Dad), and one of my sister's sweatshirts over my running gear. I put the sweatshirt into baggage check because it really wasn't that cold without it and I wanted to make sure I had something at the end of the race just in case I couldn't find my parents. I couldn't so that worked out.

I've been looking for this snowflake headband for years!

I ditched the sweatpants and the pull-over once I went over to my corral. The long-sleeved shirt lasted about five minutes longer.

I wore a white Champion C9 for Target tank (which was a little too small), turquoise Champion C9 for Target shorts, light blue Zensah sleeves, light blue Balega socks, and blue Ghost 4 Brooks sneakers. I completed the look with white Knockaround sunglasses (the only kind I will run in), my snowflake headband/ear-warmer, and blue gloves. Once I got started, I remembered how much I like my snowflake headband and blue gloves (which have been intentionally hidden missing for years), so I decided to hold onto them until I met my parents at 65th Street and 1st Avenue. Yes, I wore that headband for 16 miles. I put the gloves in the waistband of my pouch at mile 3.

A half mile to the finish line.

I'm always hot when I run and I anticipated needing to run almost naked. Many people wore longsleeved shirts and/or pants. I wore compression sleeves. This is the first time I ran with sleeves, but T has worn them before and she likes them. They kept my arms warm, but I never felt hot or sweaty in them.

On a related note, Audrey asked:

How many blisters did you get??

I actually got none, which is awesome. I bought a new pair of sneakers the week before the marathon. I trained in Brooks Adrenaline 11s, but wanted something a little bit more neutral for the future. I wore my new Ghost 4s once before the race and felt awesome wearing them on Sunday. I don't think Brooks shoes ever need to be "broken in" and are great straight from the box. I also wore Balega socks, which are incredible. A guy I went to college with told me about them last year, but I only recently bought some after T started wearing them. They come in awesomely bright colors and they are super comfy.

I didn't get any blisters, but I did get chaffed from the Razz-flavored Cliff Shot gel in my pouch.

I wear an iFitness Race belt when I run.

It was my fault because I didn't stash my gels in my couch during training runs. I actually don't like to eat gels during training runs.

That is my side, not my bottom.

It could be a lot worse. Thank God for Body Glide. I never run more than a mile without it because my body parts like to rub up against each other more than the drunk homeless men like to "accidentally" rub up against young women on the subway.