healthy active living

Fancy dress running uncovered

If you’ve ever run in a large event, or at least witnessed one on TV, then it's likely you will have seen the array of fancy dress runners who opt to ingore the usual dress code of shorts and vest. An increasing number of people are ditching the normal running gear and going in for fancy dress running. Think you could be one of them too?

Sure, you've probably convinced yourself that running a marathon is difficult enough without saddling yourself with several pounds worth of costume, or at worst being the back end of a donkey. However, we've spoken to many of the characters that take this unorthodox approach to running, in an attempt to understand their motivation for running in fancy dress.

Attention-seeking runners?
Its often suggested by the average runner that the fancy dress brigade are a bunch of attention seekers that only run in their crazy costumes so that they can be the centre of attention. Others assume that runners dress up because they aren't great runners anyway and this is a good way of disguising their slow race times. The assumption is, if you aren’t fast, then this is another way of getting in the limelight.

For most of the fancy dress runners, this is simply not the case. Many of those saddled with a hefty costume - be it a rhino, over-large nurse outfit, or even Fred Flinstone - are generally super-fit athletes. After all, you have to be to carry that little lot for 26.2 miles! As for the suggestion that they wish to hog the limelight; many are actually keen to shy away from the limelight although they are more than happy to get some publicity for the cause they are representing.

Of course, many do enjoy the profile that they can sometimes get through being a fancy dress runner, but this is product of being a fancy dress runner rather than the very reason for wanting to do it. It doesn't take a genius to work that out - after all there are much easier of getting publicity than bsting your gut over a marathon course.

So why do runners do it?
There are plenty of reasons for running in costume, the majority being based around wanting a different challenge. Many fancy dress runners have run plenty of marathons before and are now trying to push themselves that bit more.

Others run in costume to try and raise the profile of the charity they are running for or the business that is backing them. For some runners, fancy dress running is just another way of enjoying the race itself. Running in fancy dress gives you a different experience and relationship with the crowd which you wouldn't get as a regular ‘vest and shorts’ runner.