Shorting For The Summer

Shorting For The Summer

So I just bought some new shorts for the summer runs.  Big whoop as 99.999999% of the people would say.  Up till now I’ve been running a variety of shorts, some Under Armor Raid 8″, Champion Vapor 6.2, Champion Performax, Asics Woven 7″.

I don’t care for shorts with a built in liner but it’s almost impossible to find a good running short that doens’t have one.  You can find shorts that don’t such as the Champion but they’re not ‘technically’ running shorts.  They tend to be on the heavy side for one, they’re longer for another.  And over time I’ve found that some of them leave chafe marks around my T-Rex belly on extra long runs.

I went to the all knowing Google and found some sites with various actual honest to goodness shorts reviews by actual runners.  Allegedly because in spite of the commercial you can lie on the internet.

In the end I found two models that were highest recommended of the options.  Brooks Sherpa’s and Salomon Agile shorts.  The Brooks were stupid expensive but allegedly are the short to wear if you’re going Ultra-ing.   The Salomon’s were on pretty deep sale at REI and I have a members dividend from last year so it was like they were both cheap and free at the same time.

Of course they have liners.   The Brooks Sherpa liner is more like a short under short though and isn’t the usual bikini brief liner.

I’m a bit torn now, do I try them out for this weekends back to back halves?  Or do I go with my very tried and somewhat true Champions with Under Armor compression shorts under them.

Over all the Salomon’s in the ‘same’ size as the Brooks are roughly one size smaller.   I ordered 2XL in both and the Salomon’s are, as usual, designed for the ‘old’ sizing pre-vanity so the 2XL is much more like an XL in actual fit compared to modern short sizing.  The Brooks are closer to vanity sizing where the 2XL would have likely been a 3XL 20 years ago.

Both fit well enough although only the Brooks will I have to actually tie the waist ties.

Both are super lightweight, to me anyway, and very ephemeral in feel.  Construction seems on par with what one would expect for a premium short, no loose stitching, no cock eyed stitch lines.

They both only have a single tail bone zippered pouch that’s about big enough for a couple of gels and a key and credit card.   Or a phone from 10 years ago.

I’m not sure if they’re worth the cost, we’ll see.  In the grand scheme of things is saving 3 ounces in cloth on your shorts going to make a big difference?  You take two extra gulps of water and you’ve added that much and more.  And by big difference I mean to elite runners.  3 ounces cut off my 250lbs isn’t even slightly noticeable.

TREX