Running Shorts

We met as Pinks and became a team in Green.
But Tuesday night, we found that teamwork and friendship comes in all colors ... even Purple.
Last night, one of our own—from the running-biking-kayaking-tubing-wine tasting-pool playing-bowling-camping-Wii boxing-sumo wrestling-book club—struck out on her own. Amy, aka Prince in our running circle, made her debut in CLAW, one of the town’s most bizarrely entertaining new phenomena.
That’s right. Amy is now an o-fficial Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestler. She is—cue the Jimi Hendrix theme song—Purple Haze.
True. Arm wrestling is an individual sport. It was Amy, and Amy alone, who walked through the fog and swished her purple cape around her shoulders. It was Amy who stepped up on the wooden platform as lightning danced off in the distance sky. It was Amy who wrapped her purple fingernails around the hand of Ulysses S. Nopants.
But as Pants went down, Am…, I mean, Purple Haze’s posse from the above mentioned RBKTWTPPBCWBSWBC were up on their feet chanting, clapping, collecting CLAW bucks and bribing judges.
(I told you it was just a tad bizarre ... but in a good way. Tuesday’s real winner was the Shelter for Help in Emergency, the beneficiary of Tuesday’s fabulous, not so fashion-forward follies.)
Purple Haze was radiant in spiked lavender hair and matching purple claw marks streaked across her cheek and arm. But it was her arm, the arm that dispatched each and every one of us in a recent book club, that sent Ulysses retreating and lifted Purple Haze into the semifinals.
Unfortunately, THE PIT BULL also advanced.
As PH and PB sat opposite each other, their fans sent up a dueling chant: “Pur-Ple,“ “Pit Bull,“ “Pur-Ple,“ “Pit Bull.“
Easy Deb, in a Hawaiian print with purple Mardi Gras beads, worked the crowd along with PD Laura, who donned a fuzzy purple chapeau that would have made Huggy Bear proud.
Purple-clad Fast Kathy, who had darted all over town to find a replacement fog machine, was on her hands and knees providing the atmospheric mist. Her-Mix-A-Lot Anne, also sporting a lovely purple blouse, proved she could mix it up with fabrics as well. She helped create the Purple Haze cape. I, in my merlot polo, was in charge of forging alliances and photographing the action.
But there were even more of us. Rocket and Janice and 6.2 and Fab-Ab Maggie and I-Am-Not-Cheese Trish and Doctor-Devil-Woman Amber and Stephen were all there for our Ames.
We were loud. We were proud. And we were purple.
Next time, Pit Bull.
Next time.