Tag: Gear

For a solid ten years, we have traveled to Wilmington, Delaware for many races.  The distances have ranged from 10K to a Marathon, and he has been at EVERY race.  We don’t know his name. We simply refer to him as “the dude in the red split shorts.”

I guess there’s nothing unique about him, except for the fact that he’s in his 80s. He runs shirtless, and, yes, in red split shorts.  Normally, these are two items I would classify as violations:

1) Running shirtless and

2) Wearing split shorts

However, I think this guy has earned the right to wear whatever he wants to wear (or not wear).  In fact, I hope to be “that guy” someday.  He’s not fast, but he’s moving. He might look slightly out of place, but he’s out there!

The ultimate running goal, at least for me, is to run over a lifetime, and my goodness is this guy the definition of it or what? Really though, I know nothing about him. In fact, I kick myself for never making a real effort to shake his hand or say hello to him.  Yes, I’m generally not an outgoing person, but maybe I am guilty of taking him for granted. I think we sometimes do this with the elderly.

For example, if not for Runner’s World’s amazing July article on Bill Iffrig, he might simply be known only as the “old guy that fell and got up” during the bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line.  However, his story is amazing. Mr. Iffrig built his family house soup to nuts with his bare hands at night while working full time at a mill during the day.  He didn’t START running until he was in his 40s, but he turned out to be pretty fast. Bill still runs with a training group: the Port Gardner Bay Runners. Anyway, you get the point.

So, the next time I line up next to the dude in the red split shorts, I plan on learning something about him too.  I’ll start with his name, but I bet he has a good story to tell as well.

Before we ever run a race, we decide to take up running. Sometimes we take up running BECAUSE we want to run a particular race. Others simply want to get in some kind of shape.  Whatever the reasons, we make the courageous decision to take the first step.

John “The Penquin” Bingham says it best:

“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.”

When it does come to our first race though, we learn quickly about one of the perks: The Race T-Shirt!  It is an exciting piece of runner’s swag in our Goodie Bags. It can be short sleeved or long sleeved. It can have a “mock” turtle neck like the Marine Corps Marathon shirt. It can even be a vest, which is what they gave out one year at the St Luke’s Half Marathon.

In the past, the shirts were cotton, but now most are “technical shirts.” Sometimes I miss the cotton because I cannot wear technical shirts when I am not running (my “Runner’s Odor” sticks to them no matter how much I wash them).  However, technical shirts are great to use for future runs or races.

When I first raced again as an adult, I wore my race t-shirts with pride (still do I guess). Of course, I wore them AFTER I completed the race. I have always felt that I do not deserve to wear the shirt until I have officially earned it. Some newbies get so excited that they like to wear the race t-shirt IN the actual race in which they are competing. This is not the best thing to do if the shirt is cotton!  Plus, there is an unwritten rule that this is a no-no. My wife would say it could jinx you if you wear the race shirt of the race in the race.

Over the years, we can accumulate a ton of race day t-shirts. Running veterans have drawers full of them.  We give our spouses strange looks when they deem it’s “time”  for us to purge some to make room for new ones. We agonize over which ones to keep or not. I save some to “throw away” near the starting line of colder weather races.

Sometimes, we get disappointed if we look into our race bags and see a shirt we don’t like.  Some are a color we aren’t into. Others have so many sponsors, it’s hard to figure out which race it even is.  We eventually get over it because we will get another shirt at the next race.

These shirts become symbols of our effort and accomplishments. They can even intimidate. We have all seen the guy at the local race wearing his Boston Marathon t-shirt with pride. For the other runners, it is a signal that “Oh crap, that guy is fast.” The “psych-out” has begun!  It’s true: the Boston shirt gets longer stares.

However, they are also a way to temporarily bond with someone we do not know.  We’ve all seen strangers with an old shirt from the same race we have done too.  The shirts are a badge of honor that connect us: “Hey, nice shirt. That was a great race, wasn’t it?”

Race t-shirts become sentimental.  Just the other day, I had on my “fraying” yellow Philadelphia Marathon shirt (from 2001). I will wear this one until it disintegrates because it was the shirt for my first marathon.

Even though it’s nearly impossible to keep EVERY race t-shirt, they really are a great way to keep track of the history of our races.  Sure, the medals are nice, but we can’t wear them years later. I would get some pretty strange looks if I still wore my medal from the 2006 NYC Marathon, wouldn’t I?