What is all this about skirts!?

This month's issue of Runners World provides a large feature on my best running friend: running skirts. My husband forwarded the story to me because he knows how much I love them. I frequently read the oft hillarious and usually true to real life musings on Jezebel, but was disturbed today to find a posting about the RW article that pounced on the idea of the skirt.

The most disappointing thing about Jezebel's response to the running skirt was the comments that followed. The majority of the women commenting clearly have not tried a skirt. Many of them think of wearing a skirt is comparable to wearing makeup for a run. They comment that they try hard to not be noticed while exercising and that a skirt would only draw attention to them.

I am not cool enough to be a commenter on the site, but if I were I'd have a lot to report back to these naysayers. Most importantly I'd say this:

What would be worse? Me running in a pair of shorts with the legs riding up into my crotch or me running in a skirt that delicately falls over my thunder thighs!?

Don't knock 'em till you try 'em!

I've got big thighs. Always have, even at my skinniest. Shorts + running = lots of riding up and pulling down, riding up and pulling down, and so on. Therefore, even before I knew that running skorts/skirts existed, I was looking for an alternative. When I searched for that alternative, I found the running skirt community. But I was still amazed when I looked through the skirts available and found that it seemed like only skinny girls were wearing them. I bought the running skirt at The Running Room in an XL and it fit, but just didn't feel right when I ran in it. The shorts were riding up and the skirt would as well. It didn't seem like an alternative to the shorts, in fact I found that I was pulling them down even more. Friends of mine were planning to order team skirts for a relay race from RunningSkirts.com and offered to throw one in for me to get the discount. I looked through the whole site and at the time I could again only find skinny girls. They said that their skirts went up to a size 16/18, but I couldn't be sure that it was a TRUE 16/18 or the same as the Running Room XL I already had. I emailed the company to ask and they assured me that it was true to size. I still just couldn't seem to invest the money without being sure. Soon after that I found running skirts at Shopko (a Target-like store in MN and WI). They were comfortable and had a bit of the coverage I was looking for, but again something just wasn't right. When I decided to run the Green Bay Half Marathon, I knew I had to find something that was better to wear for that distance. So I went back to RunningSkirts.com and looked through their photos one more time - and low and behold there were FAT GIRLS like me! They were wearing the athletic-style skirt with the shorts underneath and a little more length in the skirt. Hallelujah! I quickly ordered one in the size 16/18 and anxiously awaited its arrival. My inaugural use of the skirt was for the 15k that I mentioned yesterday. I was completely amazed that it did not ride up on me and I actually felt comfortable walking/running around in it with my thunder thighs. I wore the same skirt for the half marathon and felt the very same way about it. I was so happy that I took the leap and bought one. Without sounding like a commercial for the company - seriously, fellow full-figured runner girls - buy one of these skirts!! I couldn't run without mine!!