Real runners wear skirts!
I consider myself a runner and I read running-related publications, including Runner’s World. A couple of months ago they had a special report about women’s running skirts, which are becoming mainstream. And, apparently, there’s a big divide between those that are for and against them.
The whole thing reminds me of when people were on the fence about listening to music while running. As an outsider to the skirt issue (I am a dude, after all), I can’t help but chuckle at all this sillyness. The cherry on top was a comment in the readers’ letters section in which a woman said “if you’re comfortable working out, then you’re not pushing your body” and “no one in a skirt is going to beat me.” Well, then! The air up there must be real thin.. I don’t get this fixation on trying to control how/what/where/when/why others do the things they do. It must be tied to the fear of change. I thought it was basic knowledge to focus on your own running/training and the things that work for you, and to not assume it applies to others. Life 101: don’t force your views onto others!
Of course, I could be a real dick about it – here’s a little something in dick-mode: You’re a loser who’s got nothing else in your life other than running and have put running up on a pedestal and are obsessed with it to no end. When you see that girl in a skirt listening to her iPod while she jogs, your inferiority complex kicks into high gear and you start attacking her. You don’t get that she doesn’t give a rat’s ass about your conceited opinions, and you don’t get that you’re inadvertently hurting yourself by making your view of the world so square. (/end dick-mode)
In the end, who cares? If something, anything, gets somebody to run, running has just become more popular and another person is healthier for it. You are a real runner when you go out and run on a regular basis. That’s it! Don’t listen to haters, don’t compare yourself to anybody, there will always be someone faster than you. Run for yourself man, run for your own PRs, run for your health, do any and all the things you enjoy doing while running, listen to music, run barefoot, whatever does it for you! As for me, I may just decide to put on a skirt and kick that woman’s ass in a foot race!
