There is no such thing as a good Brightroom photo.

I am celebrating the official start of my Chicago training by posting a photo from the last race I ran, the Japan Run in CP on June 6th. It's the closest to not horrific that I have looked in a race photo and yet it's actually of me and like 37 other people I had to crop out.

By nature, I don't mind having my picture taken. Mike would take it a bit further and insist that I have a chip in my head that tells me the exact location of any camera in a 50-yard radius, allowing me plenty of time to check my hair and jump into the shot. And that's whether or not I know the other people in it.



(Oooh, were you trying to take a picture of Javi? I didn't even see you there!)

So it boggles the mind that I have not been able to take a good Brightroom photo. My running friend Rose feels the same way, saying her race face captured on camera always appears as if she has been eating rancid meat. Now, I stack the deck by not wearing makeup and pulling my hair back. But I would say Brightroom is able to amplify those handicaps by also making you appear pasty white and without muscle tone.

So I have a new goal for Chicago. Never mind the time goal (yes, I have one but I am not publicly sharing for fear that I will fail miserably and have to admit it to all of you on this blog) ... I will be stoked if I can take a hot marathon picture. This will take some planning.

Once I've picked out some flattering (tight?) race clothes and developed a hairstyle that is both functional and cute as heck, I have to make sure Mike is strategically placed along the course at favorable sun times so that when he snaps me I'm not back lit. Do I wear my shades or not? Personally, I think my Nike wrap-arounds make me look positively badass.


But round about Mile 20 when I am sweating profusely and I am pumping the muscles simply to stay alive, I run the risk of looking positively Terminator. And that is so not ladylike. So shades ... TBD.

I may have to spray tan. Which I have never before done. But really, the only way to avoid looking pasty is to wear white. Which I don't do. I find light colors to be - how do I say this - a bit too revealing up on the top deck. So I wear black. Which doesn't do my fair skin any favors.

As for the makeup, I'm afraid I have to suck it up and embrace my natural nearly-40 look. The last time I wore makeup during a run (in my defense, I was rushing out the door from work to a TNT practice and forgot to take it off), I sweat every ounce of my MAC powder down my face, causing me to then wipe my eyes to get it out, resulting in mascara being smeared all over the place. Finishing up the night looking like the Bride of Frankenstein was not intended. Nor appreciated by anyone around me who thought I might then sink my fangs into their necks.

I'll get in a practice run on the look next month as Kerry and I hit the Napa to Sonoma Half. I'm really excited to head home for a race and to run it with one of my girls. Kerry has never done a half but is totally rocking her training. I may try to qualify for a corral in Chicago by attempting 1:50 ... but looking at the course, I may just say screw it, drink loads of cab the night before and do a run/walk. I refer to the hills, natch:


Okay, so you can't really tell on this. But frankly, any map that looks like it was drawn on a pirate ship circa 1705 cannot be delivering good news on the elevation.

So you start at a winery in Napa and you finish at a winery in Sonoma. And at the finish? Uh, yeah ... wine ... lots of it. The WHOLE race is designed around wine. Um, hello? Race organizers? Have we met?


That's Kerry right next to me. She may the only one of our friends who loves wine more than I do. This is what comes from growing up in the Bay Area. Don't we look so natural with wine glasses in our hands? Sometimes when I sit at my desk at work my thumb and pointer finger just curl automatically, as if someone were about to slip a Reidel tumbler into my palm.

Oooh ... do you think it would it look funny if I carried a wine glass in my finish-line photo?