On I went, out of the wood, passing the man leading without knowing I was going to do so. Flip-flap, flip-flap, jog-trot, jog-trot, curnchslap-crunchslap, across the middle of a broad field again, rhythmically running in my greyhound effortless fashion, knowing I had won the race though it wasn't half over, won it if I wanted it, could go on for ten or fifteen or twenty miles if I had to and drop dead at the finish of it, which would be the same, in the end, as living an honest life like the governor wanted me to. -Alan Sillitoe, "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Why didn't anyone tell me this sooner?

I became privy to the worst kept secret in all of running this morning.

After more than a decade of running, at least 10,000 miles over thousands of runs, for the first time today I ran in shorts with no underwear underneath. (The shorts had a liner, obviously.)

I felt so free. And happy. And I won't continue telling you how I felt, because this isn't that kind of blog. But it was an overall positive experience. Possibly even life-changing.

Underwear: one less thing to have to remember to pack for out-of-town races.

13 comments:

  1. OH what the heck. Next thing you will tell me is that you wear underwear with padded bike shorts, or swim suits. really???

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    1. PADDED BIKE SHORTS, TOO? This is craziness. What else don't I know?

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  2. For a long time I was like OMG YOU HAVE TO STILL WEAR UNDERWEAR EVEN IF THE SHORTS HAVE UNDERWEAR. And then one day I didn't....and then I realized....you don't. Life lessons my friend!

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  3. This is the best, right? I didn't realize this until last year when I blogged about it and everyone who responded was like, "Uh, you don't wear underwear when the shorts have a liner", so I stopped wearing them. Amazing.

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  4. OMG! Hilarious!
    Sorry it took you so long to figure it out, but welcome to the free world! ;)

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  5. Right??? I got some of the cheapy shorts with the liner from Target, and they changed my life. At least we learned, right??

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  6. LOL. I'm all about any clothing that let's you lose the added possibility for a wedgie. :-)

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  7. I cannot believe you did not know! I never wear them when working out... even in the winter!

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  8. I can't even imagine all the chafing I missed out on because I figured this out early.

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  9. Welcome to the freeballers club.

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  10. Amanda M is your sister and you were still wearing panties with your running shorts??? I wear running shorts all the time. My laundry pile is much smaller. My chafing pharmacy is also smaller....welcome to the 20th century.

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  11. Thank you for that laugh. This is better than videos of cats!

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