In today’s Chronicle, in addition to Mike’s lovely column in the Recess section, I couldn’t help but notice an article on Duke’s cross-country teams quest for a berth in the NCAA Championships but also perhaps a spot in the 2014 Beard and Mustache Championships. It made me wonder if we should challenge them to a stache-off. I mean in this picture there are some impressive examples but (in my humble opinion) our offerings are equally impressive .

With the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships looming this Friday and a berth for the NCAA Championships on the line, Duke has turned to a training technique that every runner knows well: growing mustaches.

What do you think?

 

Wait—what?

“The national championship is what we’re here to do. We’re here to run as fast as we can—but we’re here to do it in style,” said graduate student Mike Moverman, who sports a walrus mustache with a complementary chinstrap beard, a look he calls “the halfpipe.”

The phenomenon originated with the running website Flotrack.org, which has run a “Stachies for Nashies” photo competition in recent years. The setup is simple—run fast enough to qualify for the national cross-country meet (“Nashies”), grow a mustache, and document the lip lettuce to enter the online contest.

But while other teams halfheartedly grow top-shelf ticklers, the Blue Devils channel their inner Tom Selleck and use strategic timing to gain a leg up on their rivals.

“[Flotrack] tries to get us to do it from October through Nationals, which is usually Thanksgiving weekend,” Moverman said. “But my sophomore year we started taking it to the extreme. We started the first week of camp, a month and a half before all the other teams were starting.”