Although I missed him when I was on the sidelines cheering on my new friend, Andrew, there was another runner at the Pittsburgh Marathon 5K in denim.
Josh was running as part of a group raising awareness and money for L.I.V.I.N.G Ministry. And he did his fundraising in the most awesome way! From his website:
I need your help…
If I get $100, I’ll run in jeans. Whoever breaks the $100 threshold decides whether those jeans are cut offs, and if so, how short.
If I break $200, I’ll wear a suit and tie. I have no idea what the weather will be like. But i’ll be the best dressed runner, I assure you.
If I break $300, I’ll skip the entire last mile. No, not bail out, I mean skip like in hop scotch. For a mile.
Guess what, I’m on call for work next weekend too. It’s only fitting then, if I break $400, I’ll open a conference call and give all donors the info to dial in and I’ll give live progress updates for the duration of the race.
If I break $500, I will do ALL OF THE THINGS.
You all have heard me talk about the L.I.V.I.N.G Ministry before. It’s one of the best ministries to the homeless, struggling, hungry, and forgotten public in Pittsburgh. Not only the mission, but the staff are by far the most focused, compassionate, and passionate people I’ve ever encountered.
Apparently, he met is $500 fundraising goal. Here is a picture of him running IN JEANS and a suit jacket:
I’ve said it before: the best part of having this website is the awesome people that I have met through it. This weekend, I got to meet IN PERSON three people I’ve previously only known online.
Running Haiku‘s Charla came all the way from Seattle. Stride and Joy‘s Tracey and her husband, Andrew, are in from Boston.
They are in town for the Pittsburgh Marathon!
While we are all registered for the half marathon tomorrow, Andrew was also registered for this morning’s 5K. We had plans to meet near the start line. And guess what?
ANDREW SHOWS UP FOR THE RACE IN JORTS!! How great is that? Besides being super-impressed with Pittsburgh and telling me how much you love it, this is next in line for the best way to make me happy.
Look at that form!
Supporting his hometown in his Boston Marathon shirt.
Post-race looking like he didn’t even run!
He had a great run with no reports of chafing. I am officially his biggest fan.
After today’s 5K, Andrew is now a “Runner of Steel.” Charla, Tracey, and I will hopefully earn our titles tomorrow. Send prayers and good vibes our way.
All you running apparel snobs better hang onto your overpriced visors. The running-in-denim craze is sweeping the WORLD! London Marathon. April 21, 2013. Count ‘em: 1, 2, 3 people in jeans. At least three. There were probably more. A LOT more.
1. Danny Price, the brother of English celeb Katy Price, ran the full marathon IN JEANS in support of Jeans for Genes. I wrote about him and the charity here after he donned denim for the Brighton Half Marathon.
2. This dude rockin’ jeans and a leather jacket. He’s obviously not racing for speed, but he’s won my heart.
3. And this thing. Am I supposed to know what it is? Who cares. Just love it because it supports running in jeans.
At least once a week, someone is emailing, commenting, Tweeting, texting (hey, Sis!) me about INKnBURN and their denim line of clothing. If you aren’t familiar with INKnBURN, I would describe them as a company that manufactures workout apparel “with an edge.” If you aren’t familiar with their “performance denim” line, it is comprised of clothes made of tech material with the look of denim. And the line is extensive: pants, skirt, shorts, tank, jacket, even a sports bra and headband! So, when given the opportunity to receive and review a pair of their True Blue INB Performance Denim Capris, I jumped at the chance.
For me, the ideal piece of exercise apparel is versatile – it takes me from the weight room to the yoga studio to the road/trails. I am far too much of a minimalist to have workout wear that must match all the different activities I enjoy. Additionally, my other criteria for exercise apparel is that I don’t want to THINK about it. If I am wearing something that itches or tugs or bunches or rubs, I can’t ignore it. Many workouts have been ruined (i.e. stopped early) due to the fact that I am distracted and/or uncomfortable.
Overall, they are a high-quality product. Material, stitching…all good.
There was the perfect amount of stretch. Enough that you could wear them more than once without washing them (shut up, you know you do this) and they still retained their clingy stretchiness during subsequent wear(s). But, unlike compression-type pants, they aren’t gut-squeezing tight and limiting movement.
They were breathable and moisture-wicking. These aren’t for winter weather but in a moderate to hot environment, you will have no worries about staying cool and dry.
No tags! Nothing to scratch, rub, or irritate. Yes, the name and washing instructors are “burned” or embedded in the fabric. BRILLIANT!
THE LOOK
I feel like I can say that I “almost jogging in jeans” while wearing them because they REALLY look like denim! From the front, they might be able to pass for blue workout clothes, but the waistband stitching and back pocket stitching…yeah, jeans all the way.
I was a bit nervous wearing them because…well, you KNOW why. The look like jeans and I am wearing them to exercise.
Running: I wore them twice. The first time, I was out on a run by myself. As I passed walkers, I secretly hoped they weren’t JoggingJeans.com viewers and scrambling for their phones to take a picture of me. Thank goodness that my Twitter feed and email inbox have been empty of pictures of my own butt in “jeans.” And then I wore them this morning on a run with the BEST running group, Steel City Road Runners Club. It is comprised of a fantastic group of runners – heck, a fantastic group of people that are supportive and encouraging and passionate about the sport. Today’s run was a “blue out” training run to show our solidarity with all those affected by the tragedy in Boston. Given that these are the only blue pants I own, it seemed like a no-brainer to wear them. During and after the run, several people asked about them – most with a big smile and a “Hey, nice pants. Are they jeans?” or a “Did you just RUN in jeans!?” For those that didn’t ask, I’m sure they were wondering about the weirdo who was running in jeans.
Here I am on the far left after our 11 mile run. So much for thinking that I was out of the shot!
The weight room: I was nervous about showing up in the gym. The weight room section of my gym is pretty hardcore and, being the only girl there, I work hard to NOT do things to draw attention to myself. So I wore these on the day when there were the fewest people (Sunday at 8:00a-I opened the place), and there were only a handful of people there. However, those damn mirrors everywhere wouldn’t let me forget that I was in “jeans.” Again, I was hoping the girl on the elliptical on her phone wasn’t photographing me.
And a quick video of me at the gym in them. The weird ending is because I told Dear Husband to start the start the recording mid-set and end it as soon as I finished so I wouldn’t have to edit it. He didn’t, so you get it “as is” with his wife looking like an idiot.
To the gym rats: Don’t attack. I don’t normally do squats on the Smith machine. The regular squat racks were being used and this part of the gym was empty.
Final, VERY IMPORTANT words: As some of you know, I’m running my first half marathon in Pittsburgh in 2 weeks (cue freak out). These are the frontrunners as of now for my race day outfit. So if you see them (i.e. me) on May 5th, just say ‘hi.’ Please don’t photograph my ass and send it to me with the text, “Hey, I saw this lady at the Pittsburgh Marathon IN JEANS!”
Disclosure:The thoughts and opinions in this post are my own and based on my experience. I was provided the INKnBURN apparel free of charge for the purpose of a product review. I am under no obligation to return the product and can keep it for me own personal, continued use.
Nothing warms my heart more than a community coming together to support and to bring attention to the sacrifice of fallen police officers and military men and women. This picture was taken at the Inaugural Brad Fox 5K, which took place last Saturday, and honored Brad Fox, a police officer who was killed last September in the line of duty, after serving two deployments with the U.S. Marines in Iraq. You can read about this race and the man who was honored here.
PhillyBurbs.com photo caption: Here the runners take off. In the center wearing jeans, Steven DeAngelis of Bristol Boro showed up with no intentions of running but took second place in the 30-40 age group.
