I’d like to fess up right off the bat. I recently wrote a piece about Grant Fisher and his rise to the top of not just the American distance running scene, but with two world records in less than a week, atop the global running scene. The cheapskate that I am had me watching his 5K race on YouTube early Saturday morning, and to be quite honest, the article about Fisher’s rise to the top wasn’t the article that initially came to mind. No, watching him circle the BU oval 25 times, encountering 50 turns at 30+ seconds per lap actually had me thinking something else. And those were thoughts of short shorts.
Now I realize that might sound like a bizarre thought to have. With the race I witnessed, and all the improvements in training and technology, and even improvements in technical gear, my thoughts went to short shorts?
Yes they did. Much like I watched Fisher’s record run after the fact, I watched Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s 1500/mile record Thursday evening, the day before Fisher’s record run. Ingebrigtsen, the mile/5000 is the heir apparent from Norway. From the time he was 16 years old, following in the footsteps of his national caliber brothers, becoming the youngest person to break the 4 minute mile barrier, it was obvious he was the future. Everything about Ingebrigtsen screamed the next generation of elite distance runner. His propensity for tattoos, his sharp haircuts, his double threshold workouts, his bold predictions and the engine and legs to back that up. Ingebrigtsen forced us to think a bit different about what distance running, and by default, what distance runners looked like.
And that look included spandex.
Now please don’t take this as either fashion bashing or some male ego or macho thing. As anyone who knows me knows I know nothing about fashion, being fashionable, or even what might be considered fashion. It’s not that for sure. And I’m a firm believer that runners should wear whatever it is that makes them run, or even feel fast. To each their own. But as I watched Fisher pull around the chase pack, with only Gressier still on the lead lap, I had a bit of a nostalgic twinge that the runner about to smash the world record would be doing so in short shorts.
Right here I’m going to offer up two things before I go onto the rest of this piece. First, I’ve already written a piece before regarding short shorts in an article on NHTF/NHCC titled, “Evolution of a Runner”. This article talks about the evolution once an athlete admits they don’t just run but have given in to being a runner. I mention in it that the evidence on the boys side is seen in the length of their running shorts and their final conversion from basketball shorts to running shorts. So there’s the first thing.
The second thing is that I also wrote a piece (and it might be my best) called “Spike Dreams”, where I wax nostalgic about growing up in a time when both running shoes, and thereby racing shoes, were going through the first running shoe revolution. I was just getting into running when the technology in those original Cortezes and Boweman’s “waffle” design were taking their next tech jump and running shoes evolved an arms length away from the Chuck Taylors of the day. I used that article to go back through my memory banks and relive a point in time, when I had dreams, and the potential to run fast.
This article will be a bit the same, but about short shorts.
Short shorts are not uncommon in this day and age, however the target audience is a bit different. The shorts usually seen at cross country practice will certainly include what I am calling “short shorts.” But generally they are on the female members of the team. There was a time, back in the day, that those shorts would simply have been called running shorts, and there wouldn’t have been any gender distinction at all. And certainly not that there has to be, but there was a time that spandex shorts, what I have called bike shorts long beyond that being anywhere near an accurate description, were worn primarily by female athletes.
Now I have no interest in turning this into any kind of gender debate, or any determination of who should, or shouldn’t, be wearing any sort of shorts type. I’ve already confessed I believe athletes should wear whatever makes them run the fastest or at least feel they do. No, I simply want to take a shorts stroll back in time.
Just as I was getting into running, cross country to be more specific, there was also a bit of a running breakthrough in apparel as well. If I recall, tricot nylon was new and it led to lighter, more flexible material to make both singlets and shorts from. Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter both got into the running apparel business so they could make money from their running prowess without getting officially “paid” to be runners.
The conversion to a lighter nylon proved a huge benefit, not just making the race kit a bit more “technical” but offering a bit more freedom due to being lighter and less restrictive. It’s probably worth mentioning that all shorts were short shorts, think back to the time of Larry Bird and the Celtics. This is the era of the original running short, and short was both the description and the name. A two inch inseam was the standard and the really racy shorts might have even less than that.
I remember the first pair of running shorts I purchased were a pair of Hawaiian print ones, the rage long before Chickenlegs brand came out with their tremendous selection. Jon Sinclair was tearing up the road racing scene, winning races every weekend it seemed like, and dammit why not be like him.
My second pair of running shorts, if I recall, were from Bill Rodgers, a silvery shiny white, blue pinstriped pair, which believe it or not, was the rage back then. I wore these through my freshman summer and on into my sophomore campaign. I remember our uniform shorts at the time were a pair of gym shorts, no liner but of a heavier, cotton like material, ot intended for running. So for that season I just threw those over my pin stripes and raced that way.
After that season I remember the coach convinced Athletics we needed to get running specific shorts, and given the green light the coach went out and bought about 20 pairs of Dolphin unisex shorts that got distributed out to the team. I do not know whose brilliant idea it was to design unisex shorts, or who they were designed for, as I can’t imagine they were good for either sex. All I know is the pair I had rashed the inside of my thigh to the point I requested to be able to go out and buy my own pair of red shorts, from Dolphin, not of the unisex style, which I did.
This worked for a while, until my coach came to the conclusion I needed to wear the “team” shorts, as mine had a curved edge to them while the school issued ones have a side cut notch. I remember arguing and losing, and then stepping into a workshed to change. With the rash building over the warmup and not wanting to see what 3 miles of racing would produce, I reached into the shorts, tore the lining in half, and ran free.
But what I really remember about heyday of short shorts was something called the New Zealand splits. I had two pair of true NZ split shorts, with the US market developing a NZ style split short that was mostly similar. The concept of a split short is that there was no seam down the outside edge of the hip, stitching the front fabric of the short to the back fabric of the short. In actuality, as the fabric from the back panel came around the side of the hip the edge of the short would attach to the waistband past the center of the hip by about two inches. Similarly, the fabric from the front panel would then overlap the back panel and hip by about two inches as well. With no stitching on the side of the hip the legs were free to swing without any interference. Full freedom for sure.
Manufacturers in the US modified the design a little tacking the fabric where it crossed each other, making accidental indecent exposure less likely. I never found true NZ splits after that, and I admit that it was disheartening, as I had obviously made my evolution as a runner. I have no evidence that I ran faster in those shorts, as my PR came in those pair of Dolphin team look alike shorts that still had the liner in them. But it certainly felt like I could have.
Evolution continues on. As I’ve aged, the length of my shorts has increased right along with the time it takes for me to complete a mile. Over the years I’ve purchased and run in spandex, finding it beneficial after I damaged my hamstring by keeping it warmer while running late fall half marathons. To be honest I can’t say the last time I’ve even looked to see what the length of “race short” availability is, having switched the “team” uniform shorts over to black, thereby allowing the kids to purchase their own shorts in whatever style and length that they want. As long as they are straight black.
And in my last season at the helm of Mascenic the girls all purchased the “Lightning McQueen” version of Chickenlegs, and wore them as their uniform after we pressed the officiating staff to ensure they would recognize them as legal. In that, we had six wearing split shorts with one in spandex.
So this is the article I envisioned at first watching the 5000 at BU this past Friday. While working it through my head, it would have better perspective if I wrote about the race first, then reflected back to where it brought me. So as the snow falling turns to a wet mix of precipitation as I finish up, wrinkling my running plans almost as much as my decrepit body, I really enjoyed harkening back to a time in my running when there was little concern about anything interfering with my progress forward, especially not a tacked side seam on a razor thin pair of shorts.
I’ll see you out there.
