You Look Marvelous

So I'm watching a bit of random television.  I think it's Rizzoli and Isles... Angie Harmon and that other girl are out running.  They're wearing cute little running pants and tight zip up jackets and they look, frankly, adorable.  And most notably, they're not even sweating. 

Let me be clear.  when I work out, I sweat...  a lot...  like crazy...  and I get red-faced and look terrible.  Like really wretched...  like I have the plague.  I treat the fact that a single decent picture of me actually running exists in the universe as a major miracle.  It's featured on this site, and I will probably use it forever.  Even when I'm 92.  Come on...  it's the internet.  Who will know?

But I do have a legitimate question to ask, mostly of women.  When we are working out, why do we care how we look?  I'm really just interested.  There's a whole industry of fashionable workout clothes designed to be worn while we are sweating.  There are matching outfits and bright colors and running skirts featuring the tag line, "It's me time."  (Seriously a running skirt?  I don't even like to wear skirts that much when I'm not running.)  These clothes are made of the newest high tech materials.  They are also designed to be "cute."  For example, consider this pair of running shorts by well known retailer, lulumon.  They're made of  "coolmax" and have a "luxtreme" waistband.  They cost $54.  (Seriously?  $54!)  Running shorts range in price from $11.88 at Target  to I'm guessing infinity dollars if you're crazy enough.  I'm wondering if it's possible that $54 shorts are 4.5 times better than $12 shorts? 

I am sure the lulumon shorts are great running shorts.  I don't have a problem with lulumon in particular.  I just look at their shorts and I think, well shoot, why aren't they black? (They do come in black of course.)  I ask because, if I buy them in a blue pattern, then I have to think about what I am wearing on top so that I don't clash.  And I hate that about myself.  I hate that when I open my drawer of workout clothes, there are some things I won't wear together...  because they'll look bad.

I want to be clear.  If I am running, there is a 1% chance I look good.   If I do, it's because I just started 300 yards earlier.  By the end, I look like a drowned rat, and I have to wonder, why would I care for even a minute what my clothes look like? 

Let's just ignore the rest of the world and run as joyfully as Phoebe and Rachel...

Author's Note...  I started this post a few weeks ago, before lulumon exec Chip Wilson decided to tell women that they are too fat to wear lulumon yoga pants.  I don't own any lulumon clothes because I actually am too large for their clothes.  In general I would suggest to all my thinner friends that they might think twice about giving money to a company that tells them and their friends that they are fat.