When you dress nicely, you feel good about yourself. In addition, would if what you wore caused you to run faster. Both of these can be accomplished by wearing a cape.
Since I started running with a cape, my times have become world-class.
Numerous studies have shown that wearing a cape is cool. It’s why super heroes do it. Now there are capes for runners. I talked to Nicole Lund, a running store associate with expert knowledge.
“We carry lots of sizes and colors. Some people like a long cape that streams way out, whereas others like a shorter cape that will still ripple while running at an easy pace”
I thought that cape effectiveness would work only for shorter, faster runs. But Nicole said it’s not so.
“I’m a marathoner, and I started wearing a cape last fall. My PR went from 3:52 to 3:18. That’s more than a half hour improvement!”
Nicole explained that the only downside is when you happen upon a situation where there’s trouble. People tend to think you’re a super hero who came to help.
“Has that happened to you? I asked.
“Yes. This winter I came across a minor auto accident, and they wanted me to lift the car to get a trapped person out. They got very angry at me. They thought I was Wonder Woman.”
I just love these informative articles! Might I ask where best to get a cape, and has the research team found out whether cape color has any effect on race improvement?
Capes are available at your local running store. Cape color definitely affects race performance. If running in an urban setting, choose glacial ice or fall oak delight. A rural or wooded setting is best approached with mossy earth tranquility or bursting piney woods. My favorite color for races with an early start time is nectar of the bumblebees.
I think you just named the new line of Bath and Body Works lotion scents.
This may be a topic for another article, but where do you draw the line between helping a person in need and sacrificing your split time? You mentioned in your article that someone needed your help when you were out running. The problem with stopping to help is that it destroys your split times.
I have a friend who was out running on the Centennial Trail on Christmas day and a homeless person was out cold on the side of the trail due to excess consumption of an economy sized bottle of cooking Sherry. My buddy stopped to help and luckily found someone else who had a cell phone and could call 911. My friend usually runs 6 minute miles, but the stop added minutes on to his overall time. Even to this day, this is something that his running watch will never forget. How do you manage this and when do you decide to stop to help people? If you are wearing a cape does that change the rules?
Diana, you’ve raised quite a stew of ethical dilemmas. I think they’re worthy of several posts, not just one. First of all, generally, I will not sacrifice a great pace or split time for anything. But a man or woman in need cannot be ignored. (By the way, drinking an economy-sized container of cooking sherry on Christmas is a great choice. Wish I would have thought of that before.) Definitely, your friend made the right choice helping out. You can be slow one day out of the year. However, if you’re wearing a cape, sad as it may sound, it causes you to run so fast you’d miss any people in need. But there are so many runners these days that anyone in need would soon get help anyway, so it’s okay.
I would love to hear more about whether or not to sacrifice split times in order to render aid. What if capes become so popular that all runners go too fast to notice individuals in need? And since cape color is important, I’d really like to see an informative article on the effects of shoe color on performance. I am eagerly looking forward to the next installment of imustruneverywhere.com!
I am willing to bet there are a lot of runners wearing capes but they run so fast we do not see them…
When you hear a loud whooosh and the trees suddenly bend, a caped runner just went by.
You have no idea how happy this post has made me! Thank you. Hurrah for the running cape. I think they should be mandatory myself, it would make the world a better place for sure.
Thanks, Lucy.
How fast would you have to run to make your cape fly in the breeze behind you?
It would stream out very nicely at 35 mph, Ted. But I find running at a 6:30 to 7:00 per mile pace works well too.