Fans of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia should remember from the third season “The Gang Gets Invincible,” where the plucky bar owners try out for the Philly Eagles. The show’s amazing (so watch it if you don’t already,) and this episode is no exception.

One of the characters (Dennis) puts down his beer long enough for a running portion of the try-out: shot in slow motion, the camera tracks back, focused straight on Dennis. As he sprints towards the camera, a voiceover of his inner monologue discusses his perfection of form, and his likeness to a gazelle. While debating whether or not he should have taken his shirt off before running, he concludes that he is a “beautiful gazelle person,” and we get to watch in slow motion the jiggling and flapping of his exposed fleshy body parts. He then gets knocked out by the football he forgot to catch.

It’s easy to laugh, but the actor, Glenn Howerton, is actually pretty fit; while slow motion accentuates the silliness of running, the scene works because he looks so ridiculous. But his form isn’t even bad — running is just something people look funny doing.

Olympic sprinters with mechanical precision and deadly speed look like they are programmed robots. Though in awe of their amazing skill, I can’t say that I don’t laugh a little bit watching them.

But don’t think I don’t realize how ridiculous I look when I’m running — I go the IMA with a couple friends, and one of them laughs at my “feeble” arm movement and “floaty lightness of foot” even though I jog all of my two or three miles holding weights. I informed him that he has more of a “winded-hippo-with-asthma” thing going on.

My more frequent jogging partner is shorter than I am, and thus laments my longer strides and her shorter legs — most days she also turns a lovely shade of mauve by mile two.

As it is, jogging with my springiness and T-Rex arms and her purple-faced frantic stubby-legged run, we still find the humor in life. And by life, I mainly mean our fellow patrons of the IMA’s indoor track.

Some people have a slow gait that leaves onlookers wondering, “Could I actually walk faster than that person’s jogging?” while others sprint like cheetahs. The best way to enjoy these individuals is to work on the abs at one of the mats: every few seconds, a rapid thumping, pounding noise and burst of air announce their coming and going while they pump their limbs at ludicrous speed. Look at the people around you, because they will invariably exchange looks after this speed demon whizzes past.

My purple-faced co-exerciser and I saw a very noteworthy jogger the other day — imagine C-3PO running a track. That’s actually pretty much what this young woman looked like. Tall and toned, her run was at a more leisurely pace than ours, providing us several opportunities to study her form as we flailed past. Arms out from the body but parallel to her torso, she ran with determination and very little organic movement.

We called her the cyborg.

But here’s the thing: running isn’t glamorous, and people don’t exercise because they look fantastic doing it (you should see my face when I’m participating with the free weights.) People who run also know that there are few feelings as great as running – or perhaps it’s the feeling when you stop. Either way, whether the weirdness of your run comes from a slow tedious lumbering gait, a bullet-fast eerie precision, gliding legs and useless arms, a purple face, or cyborgian technology, way to get out and jog, people.

Staying healthy is at its best when it provides entertainment for the onlookers.

Reach columnist Matt Jackson at opinion@dailyuw.com.