"She's a Brick House"

I wanted to walk down the aisle to the song, “She’s a Brick House.” I also wanted to elope and get married outside in a comfortable flowing vintage gown and sandals. The last occurred, but sadly, the rest did not.

When I trained for my first marathon, I used “She’s a Brick House” as my theme song. Rocky has “The Eye of the Tiger,” I wanted one too. I was looking for a song that said, “I am a strong, powerful, kick-an-average guy’s ass in the weight room and on the track and look good to-woman.” The lyrics speak for themselves.

[Chorus:]

She's a brick house. Mighty might just lettin' it all hang out. She's a brick house. The lady's stacked and that's a fact, ain't holding nothing back. She's a brick house. She's the one, the only one,who's built like a amazon [pronounced am-a-ka-zawn]

We're together everybody knows, and here's how the story goes. She knows she got everything a woman needs to get a man, yeah. How can she lose with what she use 36-24-36, what a winning hand!

[Chorus]

The clothes she wears, the sexy ways ,make an old man wish for younger days. She knows she's built and knows how to please. Sure enough to knock a man to his knees

[Chorus]

Shake it down, shake it down now (repeat)

Each week in training you have what they call a long run. I would get in my car and drive around the neighborhoods and across country roads mapping out the designated number of miles. My husband Josh adopted the roll of Water Boy, or more adequately, Gatoraide Camel Back boy. On each of my long run days, Josh hopped on his bike and rode along side me as I trudged along. I used to call myself The Tortoise when referencing my running. I run/walk. This means it takes me a bit longer to complete 15 miles or more than your typical jack rabbit lean runner.

Queue the theme song…who can feel bad about themselves when their husband is singing, “She’s a Brick House” next to you on his Trek Mountain bike? Let me tell you, your legs can hurt, you can be sweating up a storm and feel like you cannot shuffle forward one more step, but conjure up one little, “Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now…” with a little waggle of your butt and suddenly nothing seems too serious and one more mile isn’t the end of the world.

That’s just it for me. I need ways to NOT take myself so seriously. This song does it for me every single time. I hear it and I either picture myself running along past cows and horses out on those country rodes at 7am on a Saturday morning with Josh by my side on his bike ready with blue Gatoraide. Or I catch myself wondering what it would have been like to actually walk down the aisle to our friends and families amazement as The Commodores crooned, “The lady’s stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back.” Words to live by in this slow runner’s humble opinion.