The Tough Look

In the 80s I ran often. I would run for exercise and when there was an organized race, which happens often, I would run in those. Just about always the money your registration fee goes to a worthy cause and of course there is the pretty tee-shirt you get for the race. I have many race tee-shirts that accumulated through the years… now they are too small or I am too large…. Hmmm, I wonder which?

Have you noticed when you go to different events of the same type – say like bluegrass music – you start seeing the same faces? I have. And the same goes about races.

Most of the races were attended mostly by this area’s yuppies. Most of the runners had that yuppie Young Repubican look about them – except me. And also except three mean looking characters who would look at home in a prison yard.

They had many tattoos. Not the neat looking little type of tattoos you seem some upper income people wear, but things like evil looking scaly dragons with huge bloody fangs, and nude women. Their hair was long and not styled in anyway and maybe even matte. My first thought when I started seeing them at races were: pirates. They looked like pirates, I am surprised one of them didn’t have a one-eyed parrot sitting on his shoulder.

Their running shorts were raggedy. You could almost hear one yuppie after another take a deep breath after seeing their raggedy unstylish shorts. How horrible! A pair of shorts with a rip?! The yuppies also gasped when they saw the three men stand around smoking.

They just didn’t fit the typical runners’ profile at all. They didn’t give a shit.

All three ran and smoked and carried on a casual conversation. They had a good pace and stayed up front. I wonder if people parted like the Red Sea as to let them through.

They came as they went – after about a spring and summer of different races they vanished. I wonder what they did with their tee-shirts – tee shirts were not their style. No shirts or body shirts were their UFOD.

Boy, were they mean looking! Behind their closed doors at their homes they probably fretted about details and clipped coupons out of the paper and cuddled with a bed with full of Seseme Street characters.