How Do Those Sisters Run in Those Habits?

At the very beginning of this blog I thought I would answer a burning question that is on many people's minds when they see our sisters running.  How on earth do we run in these habits?  First of all, we are used to it.  Since we train in the habit every day, our attire does not have any impact on our performance at a race.

During the summer after running races when the temperature was in the 80s or 90s, I would often get the question, “How can you possibly run in that long dress?  Aren’t you hot?”  I always found the question a little amusing because I was as cool as a cucumber and the runner asking me was usually pretty hot!  You see, our bodies are very intelligent.  When it is hot and when we work out, we sweat.  The purpose of the sweat is to cool our bodies down.  When the sisters run in a road race wearing their long, blue & white habits on a hot day, the habits become damp.  After the race, we are as cool as if we were in a swimming pool.  


In the winter we layer just like everyone else.  Probably the most difficult part of running in a habit (especially a white one) is that if it there is mud or slush on the road our hemlines get very dirty.  For that reason we tend to have a designated "running habit."  


One last thing about the habit:  we designed them for running.  Although the skirts are long, they have 4 big pleats.  Our stride is never hampered by our skirts.  So, running in the habit is easy once you get used to it.  Some of our sisters ride bikes in their habit.  Unfortunately, that is a skill I never mastered.  The skirt always gets caught in the bike chain.  Maybe I should practice more.