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In warm weather, running can be hard with extra layers on. As a runner, I know. From May to September, when the weather hits 60-90 degrees every day, I\u2019m not running with a sports bra, shirts and shorts on; I\u2019m removing as many layers as I can so I don\u2019t overheat and harm myself. That means I\u2019m running with just a sports bra and shorts on. My comfort and my health override any preconceived ideas of what women should be wearing while they workout. The same can be said of all women when they\u2019re exercising.<\/p>\n
For this reason, Rowan University<\/a> is wrong to police women track athletes who were exercising while the football team was in practice, and were called out for removing their shirts after a particularly difficult practice. After an afternoon workout of mile repeats in 60-degree weather, the athletes finished their workout in their sports bras, while some male runners ran without shirts on. Can you guess who was told they were distracting the football players? The women.<\/p>\n \u201cI was holding a 5:45 or 5:50 during mile repeats. We were dead and sweaty,\u201d teammate and senior Hannah Vendetta says. Team members recalled that one of the football coaches approached the women\u2019s cross-country coach and told them that the runners were distracting the football players. A few days later, the team learned during an athletics department meeting that \u201cthey all had to wear shirts during practice. Also, the cross-country teams were no longer allowed to use the track while the football team practiced. Instead, if they wanted to run in the afternoon, they would need to make do with the Glassboro High School track across the street. Or they could change their practice time.\u201d<\/p>\n The University administration has claimed that there has always been a policy wherein only one sports team at a time has use of the facilities, but students and alumni have disputed the claim that the policy has ever been enforced. In a response to the administration\u2019s explanations, alumna Grace Kaler<\/a> tweeted, \u201cFrom the Year 2010-2014, this policy was never enforced. We had always shared the facility. As a former captain, and student-athlete, I am so disappointed to see the sports bra rule still in play, but now to cover it up with this, is extremely disheartening.\u201d<\/p>\n