Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 2:12PM Me and 11 other crazies are preparing to load into two van and cross 200 miles in the relay race of stinkiness and joy.
I'll be covering it for www.basenettv.com via texts, videos and of course right here at WearItBright!
Stay tuned!
races, reach the beach, relays, running in running Monday, May 14, 2012 at 11:05PM i'm having a crisis.
not just a capital letter crisis, but a "who am i now"-type challenge.
i've had the brooks flow for nearly a month now. i've run in them. i have things to say about them, but I'm really losing my mojo.
who am i writing for? where is my audience? do i still care?
i've become spread a little thin. i've been most of things i wanted to be in life and now i'm left with the question, "who am I now?".
am i still the girl who loves great gear?
yes.
a rabid harry potter fan?
oh yes.
a data nerd who loves excel?
yup.
in a world that has become a 140 word communication, i now have too much to say.
when everything is your favorite thing how do you find your niche?
Sunday, April 8, 2012 at 9:19PM After last year's blietzkrieg of races,
Boston, 
Providence,
then capping it off by age-grouping the HIV 5k.
I knew that I would need a break in B-School...
That break lasted exactly a year.
After successfully assembling a team for this year's RTB, John Feather made an announcement:
"I've signed us up for the Go! St. Louis Half-Marathon."
"Us? Like you and me, us?"
"Yes. Us."
I told my husband after we finished Boston that soon he would want to run again and that running any distance wouldn't feel so bad after completing the full 26.2.
I'm not going to lie. I had secrectly hoped I was wrong. Every guy I've ever trained to run has eventully become a better runner than me. I peaked more or less somewhere around the age of 16 and have just been praying for that old age advantage ever since. You know how as you get older, qualifying times get lower and eventually, you get to win again? My plan is simply to hang in there and go slow until then.
Needless to say, I'm not there yet.
Even less needless to say is that I haven't been doing my typical training regimen at all. The farthest I've run in the last month was about 7.5 miles.
So, here I go, Brightlings! Off to run another half. Life is funny, isn't it? The last half I ran, I PRed. This one, I'm just hoping to survive.
So this begs the question:
What should I wear?
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 10:03PM Some girls ask for diamonds. Some for flowers.
I didn't ask for anything. In fact, I kinda forgot about Valentine's Day, until I came home and found these from my husband:
Gorgeous, right? That man knows my weakness.
As most of you know, I've been a Cascadia lover for many years, but the pressures of a big holiday like Valentines can spoil even the longest standing of romances.
I took these for a spin with our weekly run club at Big River Running. They just feel cloppy. Not unlike wearing horse shoes.
Since I've spent time in the Kinvaras and my Five Fingers, I've spoken before about the weight of my old favorite trail shoe. I've tried some others, but the protection is just not the same. So, I keep coming back...At least I did until now.
Cascadias are for collectors. Those of us who own them keep multiple pairs from different seasons in different colors. I keep them until I wear a hole in them - way after I can actually use them to run. I had the teal from three seasons ago, the neon green from last season. I forwent the hideous grey from two seasons ago. I've coveted the men's red pair with polka dots from about four years ago.
They're like wine in a cellar. You take photos of your collection to show your nerdy friends and you keep multiples of your favorites. While this pair is great, it looks a little too close to last season's. Here, you decide:
Am I right? It's the same shoe, different accent color.
Why, Brooks?
I love your brand. I love your shoes. I love that you've made something I can collect but, let's talk...
Are you bored? Tired of kicking so much toosch in the trail shoe arena? Just plain out of colors?
Long story short, I think I'll try the PureGrit next time.
Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 6:39PM As some of you may remember, I met this man at the NETImpact conference in Portland. (The city where according to Fred Armison's hilarious show, "The dream of the nineties is alive".)
It was a magical moment. I had missed getting to chat with James Curleigh after a talk titled "Not Your Grandma's CEO", so my friend Zoe and I went for bike ride around the city. We passed guys playing Hacky-Sack, Girls in maxie dresses and dudes with ear plugs. I felt I had seen the best Portland ever. But, just to be sure I did VooDoo Doughnuts later than night. Mmmmm doughnuts.
As we were re-entering the conference center, I had removed my shoes, rolled up my "business casual" pants and tucked my bike helmet under my arm.
I spotted James Curleigh of KEEN talking with a darling go-getter from Yale. I nerded out and begged him to take a photo with me. I said, "I am the biggest shoe nerd and I just need this for my website. As a reminder this is that photo:
After we talked environment and shoes until his assistant dragged him away, I went on KEEN and got two pairs of kicks. One for going to school and walking the dog: THIS model. And a pair for running - of course - THIS pair.
First, the boots. The glorious boots.
They have that pattented KEEN sole that makes them look a little too tough to be fancy, but they certainly look a lot nicer than my golashes. (Though, they are adorable, too...) The super serious KEEN Dry and KEEN Warm technologies, are no joke. I don't sweat when I wear them indoors, but outdoors, they perform like they were made of awesome. I have arrived at many business casual events in them, and though dowdy on the bottom, they look adorable near the knee. So I'm dry and warm while I draw eyes upward to my massive brain...Ahem...
As for the running shoes, they're light, they're colorful and they're on a low enough platform to encourage a barefoot feel. They don't feel like trail shoes, but the technology must be good, because I never come home with wet sox no matter what the weather. That's pretty high praise. I also don't feel like they're forcing me into a different stride. I can just run.
I hate that this took me so long to post, but I can definitely say that after over a month in these shoes, I am certainly happy with them. A win for KEEN. They're sustainable-friendly, technologically stable and comfortable too.
My only complaint is that they don't make more running shoes...Or sexy business shoes...But THAT is for another post.
Happy New Year Brightlings!
Holly Go Brightly
