The term ‘RUNFIE‘ spurted up recently and made a mini-splash on Twitter, Instagram, and most vastly on Facebook. While the popularity of the term has sky-rocketed in the past few weeks, the word has annoyed just as many runners, if not more.
So what is a Runfie?
Here’s one definition via RunSelfieRepeat:
RUNFIE: A PHOTOGRAPH THAT YOU TAKE OF YOURSELF BEFORE, DURING, OR AFTER A RUN TO SHARE YOUR RUNNER’S HIGH, YOUR LATEST RUNNING FASHION STATEMENT, OR TO SHOW OFF SOME FORM OF BADASSERY.
Show off some form of badassery? (Someone should probably check rule #1 of The Unspoken Rules of Being a Badass: A Runner’s Guide)
The Facebook Group ‘Runfies of the World‘ quickly gained 3,000+ members by becoming a place where runners simply post sweaty runfies/selfies of themselves running or standing completely still after supposedly running. Some of the photos are works of art, a few are inspirational, many are quite egotistical, and others are very humorous!
And then there are those that post photos of their new hair color while sitting in a salon chair. I’m pretty sure that’s a confused selfie posted within the runfies. I also came across photos on ‘Runfies of the World’ that were tagged colorfie, hairfie, plankies, and outfie (woman laying across a bed). When I was growing up an outfie was the funny way my younger sibling would talk about his protruding belly button, technically an outtie, but he always said it in his toddler english as ‘outfie.’
When it comes down to it, there’s actually not all that many true runfies on ‘Runfies of the World.’
Personally, I believe the term runfie sounds way too similar to roofie, the date rape drug. It makes me think it’s some sort of pill runners are slipping their competition, in their handhelds (or at water tables), to make them groggy and/or passout so they can scoot right past and beat them.
VOTE: Do you like the term ‘Runfie?’
Do we really need another selfie term specifically customized for runners? Is it a form of aggravated abuse to add the hashtag #runfie to our running posts that already annoy so many of our non-running Facebook friends?
Or is it a cool, hip term that is going to take over social media, and runners will still be using the phrase to describe their running selfies 5-10 years from now?
Love it or hate it, the term ‘runfie’ is uniting a certain sect of runners that have found a bond amongst themselves because of the transformed word.
