Growing a Beard Will Make You a Better Runner

“Fear the beard!”

I was approaching the mile 18 marker in the Marine Corps Marathon last month when I heard a guy shout that at me. I was, at the time, feeling like someone who had run almost 18 miles—tired, sore, ready to be done running. But the sheer enthusiasm of his cheer distracted me from the fatigue for a moment.

A couple hundred yards later, I heard a woman yell out, “Your beard is sexy!” Now I know she wasn’t telling the truth—my unkempt beard was covered in Gatorade, sweat, and boogers—but I still appreciated the unique and original cheer. It made me smile.

And then, as I rounded the corner in front of Capitol Hill, a well-bearded guy pointed in my direction and yelled, “Run, my bearded brother!” I gave him a thumbs up and started laughing.

“Three memorable beard cheers in under a mile,” I thought. “I have to write something about this wonderful bearded brotherhood and how joining it could turn you into a better runner.”

Only, it doesn’t actually make you a better runner. It just makes you feel like a better runner.

The cheers started early in the race and continued for the whole 26.2. I didn’t keep an exact count, but I would guess there were at least 30 of them. That’s more than one per mile!

And it’s not an occurrence isolated to MCM—the same thing happened the next weekend when I ran a small-town marathon in western West Virginia.

My next marathon—Philadelphia—is coming up this weekend. Should I leave the beard long going into it? Obviously. Because even though its wind resistance will likely slow me down, the cheers that it prompts will speed me up.

And, who knows, maybe I can even convince my wife to let me keep it going until the Dopey Challenge. By then it would be almost…magical.

* * *

Robert is training in preparation for the 2016 Dopey Challenge with the Runner’s World Challenge (soon to be Runner’s World VIP). To learn how you can be part of the RW VIP program, visit runnersworld.com/vip.