Cue the Applause
what to wear while running in a supposedly non 'runners' body
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Now on to the post!
This is what I wear when I run.
Last month I ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon. If you’ve never run an organized race, there’s lots to look at, including what everyone is wearing. The majority wear identifiable running clothes, name brand logo stuff made to keep you cool and comfortable. A smaller subset runs in costumes, such as a giant hot dog (someone I saw during the race) or costume adjacent outfits like head-to-toe baby pink, including pink heart-shaped sunglasses (actual super cute outfit I spotted). But there is another group, people who wear all black with baggy t-shirts or big sweats. These people run in outfits made so they won’t be seen. The majority of their limbs are covered, big tees wrinkly and stuck in the way that cotton has a way of doing in humid conditions. These outfits, though chosen in hopes of fading into the crowd, stick out to me. They don’t look modest (I have seen plenty of Orthodox Jewish women running in long black skirts and Muslim women running with Hijabs and long sleeves), they look like they are trying to hide.
Inevitably the people I see wearing a combination of all-black and baggy also happen to be older, or larger, and or not what people think of when they think of ‘runners’. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. This breaks my heart. When people run in ‘baggy and all black’, it telegraphs shame about the size or shape (or the ‘visually perceived’ fitness) of their body. It lets it be known that they are in agreement with the haters, the misinformed, and that their hard working, extremely impressive (did I mention it’s 13.1 miles?!) bodies should be covered, hidden, missed.
Races are silly and fun. They are also meaningless except for the meaning we ascribe to them. Anyone who runs a race of any distance should be excited to do it and proud to finish. It’s f-king hard! And any body that runs one is impressive, full stop.
My usual race outfit is a hot pink sports bra and hot pink shorts topped with my studio’s run tank. Neither the bra or shorts are made specifically for running but both are fitness clothing (comfortable in movement and sweat). I choose them for comfort and because I love pink. (I actually forgot my usual shorts Upstate but was able to find the same style/brand on Poshmark for this race, because let’s not pretend we’re above superstition when it comes to the clothes we do our best in! (TG for the totally on brand cheetah print!)) I have always liked color but during the pandemic started to teach in bolder brighter colors and prints. I found it was much easier for my clients to follow my movements on screen when my limbs are extra bright and it was also much more fun in a time that was dark (and seems to be getting darker).
I also started running races in the pandemic and noticed a trend I have also spotted while winter swimming. Women over 40 suddenly wearing black in circumstances where our bodies might be visible. It felt as though an expiration date was being stamped on our fashion options. 38? Wear a cute pale blue number. 40? Navy blue or black for you! The upstate swim group I first started cold swimming with was awash in high neck black bathing suits. I routinely showed up in a fluorescent yellow bikini... Upstate races are primarily populated with the first category of runners, every item chosen for efficiency if not modesty, (save for one guy who always shows up in a kilt) I am often the only person wearing anything but earth tones, certainly as shorts.
I think this approach to race outfits would put me low-key in the costume adjacent division. I stand with one foot in ‘normie’ run clothes and one foot edging ever closer to head-to-toe- fluorescents. When I dress for a race (or most anything) I wear what I am comfortable in. I’m comfortable showing skin, standing out, wearing bright colors. I’m not saying everyone else needs to be. But I also dress this way to do my tiny part to push back on what runners ‘should’ look like. I do this also as a runner about to be 42. I don’t see any reason why my body should be unnoticed or covered up. A race is a performance, literally, there’s an audience, you are timed, and you are doing your best (performing). I’m working hard out there - you better be looking at me!
This does not mean I don’t have my own insecurities. When you run a race, there are lots of photos of you. There are photographers all over the course and after the race you can look up your bib number (the number safety pinned to your clothes on a strangely fragile piece of paper considering the circumstances) and see all the pics of you. Some are really fun, you look game-faced and sporty, knees raised in an athletic moment. But most are really goofy. Unless you are a pro runner who basically leaps every stride, even runners much faster than I am tend to look like both their legs are buckling when taken in snapshot. In a lot of mine, I appear to be semi melting towards the ground - sexy! Action shots are also a great way to catch thighs in mid jiggle, cellulite in its fullest expression, or love handle lumps in a downward bounce with gravity. Weird angles are the bread and butter of a crouching photographer pointing a lens awkwardly upwards at a bunch of sweaty people in shorts. I’m all about the lumps bumps and ‘lite, but there is definitely a way to view all with flattering light and much better angling, well edited boudoir photo shoot this is not!
I will admit I had a mini meltdown (which I think was also just a post race adrenaline release) looking hard at ‘unflattering’ photos and breezing by the ones where I didn’t think I looked like a cheese puff wearing running shoes. I’m human. I’m a cis-hetero woman. I’m not immune to societal pressure of what is ‘cute’, and ‘flattering’. But then I saw via IG that someone I know professionally had also run the race. I peeped on her photos (bc I’m a creeper) and discovered she’s a baggy-and-all-black person. I will admit I even looked up her time (double creeper!). We were basically running in the same pack. I felt so sad seeing her outfit. I didn’t know she was training for this and given how much runners love to tell everyone how much they are running this makes me think she wasn’t 100% sure she would do it. I asked her how it went and she never responded to my DM. I have a feeling she assumed I run much faster than she does (not true!) or had some kind of amazing race (don’t believe everything on IG, I had my disappointments but nuance is tough to nail with limited word count!) and feels shame about her time (which is a rant for another day bc unless you are being paid to run you should have zero bad feelings about your lack of speed!). And I assume, based completely on her outfit, that she was not very loudly proud of herself after finishing, that and the fact that she posted no pics of herself just a little note that she had run the race.
As adults we rarely take time to be proud of our achievements. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood we lose the simple joy of saying ‘LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME DO THIS THING!” Again, races have no meaning except what we give them. There are people running with shirts commemorating loved ones. I nearly cried overhearing a woman say she was running because her grandma ran a half marathon so she thought, if my grandma can, so can I! (tears!) There are people running to prove to themselves they can do it (me!). There are people running as part of another challenge, like training for a triathlon or a longer harder race… and there are people who just like to run and doing a race helps keep them motivated (also me!).
For all of those people and all the other reasons, we should get our moment to be loudly proud. Holding ourselves to some kind of speed, efficiency, ‘real runner’ metric makes no sense for the vast vast majority of us. We are all of us runners, tough ones, good ones, real ones, simply because we ran.
The baggy-in-black crowd still ran their race. And despite the outfit choice, everyone could see them. Instead of being invisible they ran letting everyone know they don’t want their body appreciated, or at the least that ‘they know’ they don’t have the kind of body that deserves to be shown off. ‘Don’t worry’ baggy-all-black says, ‘I know I’m fat/old/unattractive, don’t worry, I’m not happy about it either’. When we hide we hope we are hidden, but it doesn’t make us not there. Like a toddler playing hide and seek with their feet sticking out from under the bed, we are visible, just saying ‘don’t see me’.
I will not go quietly into that dark-tights night. I don’t want to send a message that that my body or any body should be covered up, hidden or ignored. Our bodies deserve all the clapping, cheering, waving and high-fiving that is part of running a race with a crowd. I know for many, wearing something tighter, brighter or more revealing is a bridge too far, especially in a circumstance or environment where we might already feel insecure. But I present a challenge to us, each time we do something hard, anytime we step out to present ourselves, dress in a way that lets everyone know, not only do we deserve the applause, we expect it.
Want to work with me? My All Inclusive Summer Series is open for enrollment!
You get ALL THREE classes for one price: All Levels Strength, Anti Anxiety Cardio and Restorative Pilates. Choose to take the LIVE VIRTUAL plus recording version or do it SELF PACED and get instant access to your summer’s worth of classes.
The series has everything you need to get strong, balanced and chill this summer.
Last week I interviewed the amazing Martha Hudson of Luv Martha Swim - her custom all body swim wear company. It’s a great listen if you want more on the subject of all bodies being worthy of bright colors and visible skin.