The secret sports bra

Today's going to be one of those days. I'm up earlier than I want to be, bracing myself for a too-full schedule, preparing for some challenging meetings, and officially beginning my monthly weekend of being on-call. And I don't have time to run this morning before all of this begins, which makes me grumpy. If you're wondering why I didn't just go run this morning instead of writing this post: I wake up slowly. I've never been someone who can hop out of bed, lace up the shoes, and be out the door. I need time to sit with my coffee, take in a little news, see what's happening on Facebook, and very slowly come to my senses. Early morning runs are jarring to me, and take all of the fun out of running, so I do what I can to avoid them.

I don't quite know when or where I'm going to get in today's run, but I do know that I'm going to need the mental health break today, and I'm not skipping it. To facilitate this, I'll of course have the ever-present bag of running gear stashed in my car. But today requires the big guns: the secret sports bra. There are many different transitional objects that people use for a sense of safety and security. Some have a wubby or an old favorite teddy bear. Me, I have my secret sports bra. When bracing for a particularly tough day, I put it on under my work clothes, which readies me to pull over on the side of a road on a moment's notice, do a quick-change in my backseat (tougher to pull off in public places without the secret sports bra already in place), and get out there. I don't always get in the run, I admit. Some days get the best of me, but just feeling like I've got some say in the matter, a shred of control over things, is sometimes what gets me through the day. So should you see me out and about, and are wondering about my odd choice to go with sea-foam green under that blazer, know that I'm fighting my own personal battle. And it goes deeper than poor fashion sense.

Can we just pretend that this is
what I look like in my secret sports bra?