Unlike Any: Women Stand Alone and NYC Running

Earlier this week, I took off with my Under Armour Women family for a quick trip to NYC to celebrate the launch of a new campaign that I’m so excited about. I keep talking about inspiring female athletes and pushing our boundaries, this is a mega brand putting their money behind that message too!

Here’s my fun little video recap, you have to watch the killer poet mid-way through. She’ll give you chills and make you proud to say hell yes I’m a woman, stop comparing my achievements to that of a man. I stand alone! I am #unlikeany.

UNLIKE ANY

Let’s talk more about this campaign because I’m excited about it. First, we got to see a sneak peek of their videos during our Baltimore trip a few weeks ago and it’s this amazing mash up of incredible female athletes with poets speaking about them.

“We had to start thinking about how to change this conversation. Why is there always a framing that when a woman does well, she’s compared to the greatness of a man? We needed to remove gender from the conversation“

Here’s one about Natasha Hastings, world champion sprinter, who I totally fan girled over at the event and had to get a selfie.

“Each of our athletes in this campaign have shattered expectations and challenged the status quo on their respective playing fields. For Unlike Any, we set out to celebrate and elevate our athletes to where they belong – above gender roles, above labels, and above convention,” said Adrienne Lofton, SVP Global Brand Management, Under Armour.

It gives me chills.

Sure many brands create a women’s line, but to truly put their focus on the women’s line is a big jump. It’s not just hey women are great TOO, it’s hey women are great PERIOD.

For me this is key because I hate when I hear friends male bashing. “Women are so much tougher, men can’t blah blah blah”. If we don’t want that comparison, why is it fair to turn around and speak that way about them.

Instead with Unlike Any there is no need to put down what our male friends are accomplishing and no need to diminish our achievements, they are separate and equal.

As always a great opportunity to catch up with the entire UA Women’s family and remember that as serious as we are about our work, our sports, our passions…we’re women, we’re silly, we’re friends.

Running NYC

Sure, sure, I’ve got a knee injury and I haven’t been running a ton…but when in a new city there’s just no option. I MUST run!!!

My only other time running in NYC was for the marathon, so it was a blast to head out on my own personal runsploration. For the first time I understood how so many runners could live in NYC, there are plenty of paths that don’t involve stopping at a light every three feet!Fist, I  took in the full Highline which is so pretty with flowers in the summer and of course interesting views of the city. After running that end to end one morning, the next day I headed down to the Hudson River Greenway path which goes all the way along the water to the Brooklyn Bridge and though the humidity had me sweating buckets, the lower elevation even made climbing the bridge feel pretty great!

Overall I managed to run 7.5 miles on Wednesday and 5.5 miles on Thursday, with at least another 5 miles of walking thrown in! My knee wasn’t pleased, but I was giddy from finally enjoying a great sweat session.

Places to run NYC, sans the millions of stop lights:

• Central Park – hilly 6 mile loop
• The Highline – can be really busy, so early morning seems best
• Hudson River Greenway – lots of great water views and points you can add on for extra miles
• Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn Bridge Park
• East River Running Path
• Roosevelt Island – on my list for next time!
• AND on my list are the Harlem Runners group because I’ve now met Alison the create and can’t wait to run with her

It’s super cool to run through some of the downtown icons, I passed the 9/11 memorial and other things, but unless you’re an early bird like me the people, traffic and many stoplights make it way less enjoyable (IMO).

Soul Cycle

I’ve been hitting the bike hard with this injury, but  I haven’t loved a lot of the spin classes because they just felt like too much dancing around and not enough pushing yourself to ride hard. I know that Kym Nonstop would give me both that rock it out vibe and the RIDE hard class because she’s a serious cyclist.I definitely wish we had one of these studios here in Denver, but I’m going to use my ClassPass to try a few more places and maybe I’ll like one as much! Cycling is still for me just a I want to sweat my ass off kind of workout and not a pure passion like running, but I do LOVE how my core feels so engaged during the entire class and the vibe of fun and excitement was amazing in this class.

In the hours in between, I luckily had time to meet up with Christine, a LONG time blogging friend who is now a great freelancers, enjoy a great group dinner….and yes as always stalk the local Whole Foods. It’s just the easiest way I know to find foods that feel food and fill me up! I’m being way more focused on no dairy when I travel and it’s making me feel a lot better.

Have you ever run in NYC?

What do you think of the Unlike Any campaign?

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