Red for Elite

Is there a color system for endurance athletes beyond just using the terms 'elite' and 'all-the-rest'? Well lets look no deeper than the clothes that make the person...

For a triathlete its normally a black wetsuit, then for the bike a multi color tri-top or multi- colored bike shirt, if your lucky you can get away with a skin tight mid-riff top for the bike and the run or if a women, run in a sport bra and shorts.

For a pure cyclist look at what these guys wear for tops. The most outlandish and sometimes garish mismatches of color imaginable. I rarely see a cyclist wearing a solid color jersey, unless its yellow and the guy wearing it is named Lance, but I digress. I see state flags as cycle tops, Bob and Bills Big Juicy Ribhouse Bike Team tops, you get the point, these outfits look like Nascar decals. Of course there is no consideration for ability, the good and the bad cyclists alike all wear the same ugly stuff.

Runners are a bit different. When you go to a race you mostly notice a sea of white tops with the occasional purple thrown in for '1st Marathon' or 'Team in Training', maybe something else for a business that teased people out with overtime pay or the benefit of another shirt proclaiming their work but lets leave them out of this for now. White seems to be the predominate color among the great majority of recreational runners. Why is that? Is it a cheaper shirt to stamp logos on? Is it just a basic color that people instinctly buy at the store? I have a few myself with club logos on it and lots of race shirts that are white.

But what about red? The only people I see wearing red are people that are elite, used to be elite or aspiring to be elite. These are the gazelles, or sometimes the local track team using the race for their purpose. In any regard to me the color red on a runner either in a race or on their daily route means one thing, this person is a serious runner and faster than me.

Red is a catchy, flashy color. Just think about red cars; red is synonomus with sports cars not sedans. What about red heads, ever see a normal looking pure redheaded person? No way, either a red head is beautiful or egad!

BTW my hair color is autaben, as in "otta been on a dogs ass". Mostly brown with red sidewalls becoming more increasingly gray, which is why I am growing it out, but thats another post.

Back to elite runners, I mean non-slow people who run faster than me. I think people who wear red tend to lithe, hard bodies who look like flames dancing infront of a great sea of white, which is everyone from coral two and back.

I have nothing against red. I hope someday to buy me my male runners version of the female slinky black dress-that being a semi-fitted Nike sphere in a large that dosent make me look like a big blemish. For now I will just keep wearing the blue, its pretty non-commital.