Rockin' the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon 2012 in a tutu

I think I've told you before about how I love to accessorize when I exercise.  For me, it's not just about getting fit...it's about looking awesome while doing it.

Over the years, I've bought a lot of stuff, a good portion of it from Lululemon because I like their style and quality.

When I initially started getting back into running, I thought I'd finally found a sport where I didn't need to buy much. But boy was I wrong.  So far, I've bought:

• 3 flashing lights for running at night
• 2 dri-fit hats
• 1 sports armband for carrying my cell phone
• 1 set of Motorola Rokr (Bluetooth) headphones
• 1 small water bottle for carrying on long runs
• 1 hydration waist pack for carrying on long runs (when I don't feel like carrying the small water bottle in my hand--haha)
• 1 (expensive!) pair of running shoes
• a ton of Gu 

And as far as clothes go, I've bought 3 more Lululemon pieces:

• 1 pair of capri style running pants
• 1 running skirt
• 1 tank

My San Jose Rock 'n' Roll
Half-Marathon 2012 costume

But apparently, there's a whole other line of clothing that I had no idea I'd need.  As I started training for my first half marathon, the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll, I discovered that some runners like to wear tutus!

I dabble a bit in crafts, but I've never made a tutu.  So I did the next best thing: I turned to Etsy!  I found a couple of Etsy sellers whose business is devoted solely to making tutus for runners and other running related clothes:

• Lucky Number Tutu
• Race Junkie
• This Princess Runs
  and
• GroovyBaByActionGear

I found several Wonder Woman-themed outfits (tutu + tank or shirt + shorts) that I really liked. But in the end, I decided I should go for something music related since it was for the Rock 'n' Roll Half.

I actually wasn't even planning to wear a special outfit for the San Jose RnR half at first. But about halfway through my San Jose RnR training, I decided to sign up for the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half.  And the Las Vegas event has some very special entertainment: a run-through wedding and the largest number of Elvis look-alikes!

Count.me.in.

But what to wear????

I started by Googling "Las Vegas Rock Roll marathon Elvis" and discovered that a lot of people dressed up (in previous years) in those full (polyester?) suits that Elvis always wore. I found quite a few pictures of people in the "white eagle" outfit.  But if I was going to dress up as Elvis, I wanted my outfit to be...different. (After all, my husband already had a hard time finding me in a 5K race earlier in my training. Finding me in a sea of "white eagle" Elvi would be next to impossible. Not to mention that that the full suit would be uncomfortably hot while running a half-marathon.)

So I went about dreaming up some kind of "blue owl" themed Elvis outfit that I might be able to wear. I started with a lot of amazing ideas, like real or fake bellbottoms that could be attached to my running outfit, a blue tutu, a bedazzled tank, and a "cape" with a high collar.  But, as it turned out, finding someone who would actually make those pieces -- Etsy or otherwise -- proved to be extremely difficult.  Each of my fantastical ideas fell away as the idea of finding someone became more and more bleak.

But I tried not to get discouraged and worked on getting 1 piece of the outfit at a time made. If I was going to do a tutu, I wanted it to have use for more than 1 event, so since I was already thinking about doing a Disney race, I decided to do something blue themed that might also work for Cinderella.  Jenny at Lucky Number Tutu was patient and listened to all my ideas.  I even sent Jenny pictures of my 3(!) blue Lululemon tanks so that she could more closely match the color to my existing clothes.  She initially suggested mixing a couple of colors together, and at first, I didn't really like the idea.  Until I gave it some more thought and realized the idea had some merit. In fact, I ended up loving the idea. So Jenny designed a tutu using a bright blue tulle, a light blue (for Cinderella) tulle, and a silver tulle. And in keeping with the music theme, Jenny designed a tank with a guitar on it to go with the tutu.

In my start corral at the San Jose Rock 'n'
Roll Half-Marathon 2012

The guitar tank and tutu were all I had left of my fantastical "blue owl" themed Elvis idea, but it worked out well.

(<-- Psst...I love how this picture turned out!)

Both Lucky Number Tutu pieces arrived in plenty of time before my San Jose event, and I was even able to find a matching blue dri-fit hat at the Rock 'n' Roll expo a couple of days before the race. Put all of it together with my sunglasses, and I looked...awesome.

I tested my tutu out on a short (1.5 mile) run the day before the race, and everything worked fine. The day of the race, I decided to shift the front tulle pieces so that most of it was in the back (and out of my way), and it worked even better.  (I have since learned that I can buy "bustle" style tutus on Etsy.)  By shifting most of it to the back, I didn't get bothered by the tulle at all during my race because my arms weren't swinging into it.

So, what do you think of my race day outfit and have you ever dressed up in a costume for a race?

Oh, and incidentally, after thinking about my outfit some more post-race, I actually decided not to use it for the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll race after all.  In fact, I'm still dressing up as Elvis, but I've shifted to a different Elvis theme now: "jailhouse rock" Elvis!  Whatever I end up putting together will probably  be fairly simple (as opposed to my elaborate interpretation of "blue owl" that I was previously trying to put together). I'm still working out the details of "jailhouse rock" Elvis, but I did get an email from Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll race organizers today saying that there are some special Elvis-themed parts of the race that I can join: a photo op and a chance to meet other Elvi (like me!) before the race.  Stay tuned...