It recently occurred to me on a run (of all places!) that I may have been too quick to judge our friend, "the runsie". Don't get me wrong; "the runsie" is still not "the one"sie for me - but hey - if it's your thing than, Baby, rock it like a wagon wheel.
Ever since my first half marathon in March 2012 - I have worn a "sparkle skirt" and "race flair" for each and every race. Though some people make their own skirts or tutus for runs - I buy my 'sparkle skirts' at sparkleathletic because that's just not my kinda craftiness. I get my 'flair' from anywhere I can find it; Walmart, Target, Claires - my favorite flair is fake tattoos and knee socks cut to be used as arm warmers.
I have PR'd in every race that I have worn a sparkle skirt in. As a matter of fact, I have only run a race once not in a sparkle skirt and flair. PS - I didn't even come close to a PR in that one. One rational reason for the lack of PR that day could have been the fact that I hit a plateaue coupled with the fact that I ran a hilly course after training solely at the flat oceanfront (also I drank wine the night before, that's neither here nor there.) Although another, maybe irrational reason for the lack of PR was simply the lack of sparkle. That day - I just sweat; usually I sparkle.
The reason I tried to stop wearing sparkle and flair is because I, wrongly, thought that "real runners" should just sweat, you know - sans sparkle. I thought as I got faster I needed to look the part and be serious. Uhm, serious for who exactly? What people was I trying to be serious for? Running, as we know, is an individual sport and one we've heard say time and time again is simply put; you and the road. No competition but your own. So forget the sweat - just sweating is for the people still trying to make it or still trying to understand it. So I will leave the 'just sweating' to those folks - I'm gonna leave big splash of sparkle in my wake when I race.
Last year I ran the Wicked 10K in Virginia Beach. It is a local race for me put on around Halloween - I would say that more than 2/3rds of the crowd runs in some sort of costume. Because of my projected race time - I was seeded in Corral 1. The MC/announcer at the starting line was having a good time before the gun went off looking down at us in "corral 1" and saying how he knew "the winner would probably come out of this group but man, you are all a boring lot to look at". I looked around to notice that most of the "fast" runners were in black. Not black like a Black Swan costume or Batman - but black. Hello black, meet boring.
This was me:
I might have been embarrassed for a second but I quickly realized I was kind of awesome for being able to run pretty fast and with flair no less. It's my thing and it's pretty fun. If you judge me for that in the starting corral - thats ok - you just haven't found your sparkle yet - and when you do get the chance to run in black or sparkle - I hope you sparkle.
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