Michelle’s the big time runner around here, so how did I get relegated to do the running skirt review? Well, I assure you I did not volunteer. A coin flip and I lost. You would think that I would jubilantly embrace this assignment considering that I have a personal philosophy that women should proudly display and enjoy their femininity during sports, even while competing as fiercely as a man.

This belief is why I play soccer in my pink cleats and pink headband. This is why I buy lululemon fitness wear. This is why Florence Griffith Joyner, with her long, colorful fingernails was my hero after her performance in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Rest in peace, Flo Jo.

So why would I resist running around in a mini skirt? Hell, I’m even prone to thigh chafing on runs over four miles, so if anyone should welcome the running skirt with open legs, (so to speak), then it should be me!

However, as you know from reading my tech gadget posts, I tend to resist things I don’t understand and downright shun things that confuse me. And, well….the running skirt does both.  But lucky for all of you, I also love learning, so although I was not yet willing to sport the skirt out on a run along the strand, I was ready and able to research it for you AND take a lap around Sport Chalet in the thing. (I know. I know. I’m very much a slow to commit, toe in the water to see if it’s cold, kind of girl! What can I say?)

When I first heard about these running skirts I thought maybe they were for retired tennis players that had gotten tennis elbow and had to take up a new sport, but didn’t want to give up their beloved tennis apparel so they just brought it over with them to the running world.

Turns out that none of my research could turn up any proof that Steffi Graf had anything to do with the new trend to look like runway models while running a 10K. And I can sure as hell guarantee that Billy Jean King isn’t behind this, because I think she quit tennis so she wouldn’t have to wear skirts anymore. So, what gives?

I was certain it was another fashion industry ploy to get us all looking silly, while thinking we look cool (can anyone say legwarmers over jeans?), so that years from now we can rip up embarrassing  photos of ourselves to hide the evidence of our fad-following ignorance in years prior?  Meanwhile, Nike and New Balance laugh all the way to the bank with their running skirt millions! I also considered that  perhaps the whole thing is  a Throwback to ancient Greece’s athletic apparel. Kind of like a tribute to the original Gods of running.  

But then I tried one of these suckers on and conspiracy theories went out the door. I was a believer.  I was a Flashdance commercial that had come to life.  I was a karaoke, soundtrack-singing, Irene Cara impersonator. I kid you not, when I slipped on the skirt, the following lyrics popped in my head and would not leave:

“What a feeling! Being’s Believin’

I can have it all now I’m dancin’ for my life

Take your passion and make it happen

Pictures come alive now I’m dancing through my life”

You remember that song, right girls? Well, if I already have that “I am music now” feeling when I run in shorts, and then I got that feeling just by putting the skirt on in the dressing room before ever making my aforementioned lap around the store, then can you imagine combining the two forms of a natural high out on the open road? No? You can’t? Well that’s because you’re probably still wondering as I was, what happens when you run in one of these on a windy day? 

Well, you’ll be happy to know it’s not really a skirt. It’s more like a skort, which have always looked better on me than shorts do anyway! These things are more forgiving when it comes to leg flaws than typical running shorts are! Big thighs just got sexier, people! Your cellulite and varicose vein concerns just disappeared under a flap of fabric! But the experience had just begun.

Then came the true test. The run. Forget about the fact that I crashed into a lady in the bike section trying on her new beach cruiser for size. Forget about her. (She shouldn’t have been poking that front wheel unexpectedly into my pathway, anyway).  And don’t think about that discount sale rack that gashed my shin up because the sales guy couldn’t see over it as he wheeled it about like a spastic shopping cart with a bum wheel. I was happy to take one for the team. Happy to sustain personal injury for the sake of my readers. Happy to endure hardship to bring you the information you need. Which is: Yippety Skippety; Go buy one! You’ll love it!

And check back next week for my in depth reviews on individual brands and styles of running skirts.