Monday, December 31, 2012

Running Capris + High Heels: Setting a Trend for the New Year

Happy New Year's Eve! My house is absolutely rocking right now...Matt went to bed at approximately 6:30p (yes, you read that correctly) and the dogs decided that snuggling with him was more interesting than hanging out with me, so I have been left to my own devices (read: getting ready to have champagne for a party of 1 and updating ye ol' blog).

Anyway...I have to tell one on myself b/c this is too classic not to share with the someone.

This morning I got up bright and early to test out the Red Mountain Park trails at our track club's resolution run. I ran late yesterday afternoon and debated whether or not to attend this morning (for various reasons) but am glad I did! In hindsight I wish I had done the 5 mile route (I did the 3) but I wasn't sure how soul crushing the trails were going to be (Ruffner bad?) and didn't want to kill myself given that I've been down out and with a nasty cold for the better part of this last week and am still not back to 100% even after 2 runs and a Zumba class to my credit since Saturday.

So, to be honest, part of my motivation for getting out to this particular run was driven by the fact that I needed to go to my office to retrieve a recipe that I had accidentally left in a folder on my desk. It's Matt's cornbread recipe that he is making for the New Year and I COULD NOT find it on the internet anywhere (turns out I was looking on the wrong sites but I digress...) My office is about 10 minutes from RMP and I rationalized that I would feel less pathetic about going downtown if I was practically there already.

I was on vacation today but the office was open. Without going into too much detail I work in a fairly conservative corporate office and running clothes are most certainly NOT on the approved dress code. I was pretty sure it would be a dead zone but knew there was a chance my boss might be in and was pretty sure some colleagues on my hall would be working. The plan was to pull a pair of jeans on over my running tights, slip on a pair of flats and wear my dressy, knee length coat (buttoned) and add some lip gloss so that I would at least look human and not questionable. To be clear, jeans are also NOT on the dress code, but given that I was not working today, it's practically a holiday and I would be slipping in and out quickly I knew it would be fine.

As I got back to my car after the run I quickly realized that while I had managed to grab my coat, I had apparently forgotten to pick up my jeans and flats after I set them down when I went to find my Garmin at the last minute. CRAP!!! I did not want to drive all the way home to drive all the way back downtown for a piece of paper...what to do? Pop the trunk...is there anything in here that can work? My trunk is pretty much empty...certainly no pants BUT a pair of black heels waiting to be taken to the shoe repair to be re-heeled. Did I dare?

I decided to suck it up and head to the office and press my luck/judge the situation when I got there. As I pulled into my building I noticed the exec lot was completely EMPTY!!! Score! So...in the parking lot of my building I changed from muddy running shoes to high heels, buttoned up the coat, added some lipgloss and hoped that my running capris would be hidden enough and might look like some kind of "legging" peeking below. As soon as I walked into the suite, there were 3 of my colleagues and admin assistant delivering some mail. "I'm not really here! Pretend you don't see me" No one really batted an eye and I actually ran into a colleague/friend at TJ Maxx this afternoon who said all they noticed was the flash of my white coat and then I was gone :)

I'm pretty sure this is fooling absolutely no one, but it was my best attempt
However, I was NOT fooling Matt and when I walked in the door after this "excursion" he looked at me, laughed, and said "What the hell are you wearing?" LOL. Let me also add that at this point I also noticed a huge streak of mud going down the side of my right calf...

I don't think this is what people mean when they refer to "work-life" balance!

Anyone else ever have to do something like this or is it just me? :)