About two years ago, the big talker seemed to be barefoot running. I guess the natural progression from then would be naked running, which is what seems to be headlining all the running media I consume … and yes, I’m part of the media.
June’s issue of Runner’s World has a feature (not yet online) on one woman’s experience in a clothing-optional race (best lines in it: “Two men had fallen into stride with me. The fit, muscular guy to my right looked at his watch. ‘You know you’re doing 6:20 pace right now?’ I laughed to myself. Here we were, no pants, and this guy is talking splits.”)
Runner’s World’s RW Daily blog has been dutifully covering the case of a runner in Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon whose shorts fell off, according to him, and who ignored police orders to stop or be Tased (first-day post here, follow-up here). Part of his defense is that people do worse things at races, also without pants on …
And finally, this one is not actually humorous because it turns out the subject is mentally ill, but Running Is Funny led me to the story of the naked trail runner in Pennsylvania. If you watch the TV segment (link here), pay attention to the terrain – that’s the kind of route the Rockford Road Runners took me on at their monthly meeting.
Everyone wore pants and shoes, of course, but a nice woman named Denise invited me to join her and her friend Paul’s six-miler around Rock Cut, and an even nicer guy named Phil volunteered to hang back with me once their 9:15 pace over the hills knocked the snot out of me. It was frustrating at times, but like with most tough runs, once the sweat dried, I forgot about the agony and started thinking maybe I should hit Sugar River more often than Stone Bridge.
Postrun and postpizza, Coach Mike of the Rockford Wildcats gave an informal presentation on the youth running group. Between that and our conversation afterward, I’m thinking pretty hard about tweaking my training. Mike thinks I should get out of my comfort zone and one day a week, back off the distance but crank up the intensity (and that’s aside from interval training). Sounds exhausting and kind of miserable, but then again, so did intervals – and I think those are paying off.
