Sunday Best Running

My Sunday Best Running Outfit

So this weekend I had a nice 6 mile run.  The rain held out for an hour and a half, I was able to avoid most of the puddles, and while grey and chilly, I had the road to myself.  I even found a dollar on the sidewalk at the one mile marker.  I ran without my customary knee strap.  Things were going as good as can be expected on a chilly, damp Sunday long run, until an hour and 15 minutes into the run, somewhere around mile 5ish, a young couple passed me with a rude comment about my outfit (which is pictured above minus my orange and purple stripped skull cap).  They were in their early 20's and passed me without a word on a downhill stretch.  Scared the snot, literally, out of me and then I heard the comment.

"Someone obviously got dressed in the dark.  That outfit doesn't even match!" said the girl.
"That's probably why she's walking down the hill!" said the boy.

And with that they jogged up the hill!  The girl with her capri pants, clean white shoes and a grey yoga sweater.  The boy with his grey tee shirt, black tube socks and basketball shorts.  Who the hell are these people to comment on my running gear!  It goes against the inclusive nature of the running community!  I was wearing high tech, dry fit, performance running gear!  So what if it didn't match!  At least you can see me instead of blending into the grey, gloomy sky!  As mismatched as this outfit is, I paid a lot of money for it!  It wicks, it reflects, it resists odors, it damn near does everything but run for you! Who the hell are these two kids.... Then it hit me!

I have become a keeper of the sport!  One of those runners who is happy that you're out there no matter the pace, or the outfit.  One of those runners who appreciates the front of the pack for their athletic proneness and the back of the pack for sticking in there and finishing the race upright!  The urgent need to educate these two rude, young people on the inclusive, supportive nature of our sport was overwhelming, but the two young people jogged up the hill. I wish I had been a little quicker so I could impart some wisdom on those two young, able bodied joggers, but I'm not quick and as loud as my outfit was I wasn't in any shape to holler after them after 5 and a half miles!

So here's what I would of said if I could of caught them up the hill (damn bone fragments and hills don't get along so I walk them). Hey, able bodied young people, enjoy that quick pace now, before kids, and family and job demands interfere with your training schedule.  Enjoy the fact that your joints allow you to run in cheap no brand running shoes and that you won't have to ice those abused joints from those cheap running shoes in say, about five years (when you hit thirty and your body decides it doesn't have to recover quickly, or burn calories at a rapid rate).  Enjoy the fact that the only thing you notice on a weekend run is an older lady in a loud, mismatched outfit instead of enjoying the city sweeping the sidewalks so you don't trip over trash or the relative quiet from a busy, loud, demanding life of most adults with children.  And while I'm at it, please take time to encourage others who are being active.  There are so many people sitting on couches either by choice, or medical condition that can't enjoy the movement of their bodies and see you as an inspiration to what might be if they ever get off the couch. Buy some dry fit.  If you're going to run and comment on what others are wearing you should at least be dressed in appropriate garb to be running's What Not To Wear.  Oh, one more thing, my socks don't match either, but there just as happy as the rest of me to get another run in and that's really what its all about!