ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
According to a recent study conducted by Australia’s peak scientific body, running with a visor turned back-to-front on your head can actually make you run faster.
Researchers from the CSIRO have observed speed and pace increases by up to 20%.
That’s compared to folk running with either a baseball cap, Akubra or forward-facing visor, says Julia Coleman, who chaired the study.
“We think it might have something to do with aerodynamics or something,” she said.
“It’s actually faster to run with no hat. Even faster if you shave all your hair off. But everybody likes to run with some sort of headwear on so they were removed from the study as being outliers,”
“From what we’ve been able to establish, because a visor weighs less than a hat, you can run fast with it. Plus when it’s backwards on your melon, it creates less drag, making you even faster.”
The Advocate caught up with a popular local jogger, who’s been spotted sporting a sporty visor when he runs around Machattie Park down in Betoota Ponds.
Thomas Jung, who moonlights as a geologist at the Betoota Heights Uranium Enrichment Plant, explained to our reporters that he’s tried running in everything from an Akubra Sombrero to a paisley red bandanna.
“The bandanna was the worst one,” he said.
“People would drive past and leer out the window, ‘Run! Sinbad! Run!’ so I stopped wearing it. The Akubra wasn’t much better. One colleague called me ‘The Bushtucker Gronk’ which is quite mean,”
“So I started wearing a back-to-front vizor and now people just call me dudebro or Brad, even though that’s not my name. Maybe it should be my name?”
More to come.
