Marathon Me

Is it okay to wear the shirt for the race you are running in?-Jim, Vermont

Ahh, I love the really tough questions. Hahah.  Well, this gets talked about a lot among runners.  The majority, I believe, come down on the fact that you shouldn’t ever wear the current year’s shirt in the race you are running.  This is because of two main reasons (well, maybe 3):

1. You should never try anything new on race day
2. You should only ever wear race shirts for races you’ve actually run in and finished
3. It will mark you as a novice runner / newbie

The first reason is pretty self explanatory and #3 I just threw in there because it’s true.  While, it doesn’t matter if you are a newbie or a novice runner, and God bless all of the new runners out there (or we’d have a lot fewer races), wearing the current year’s shirt is something typically only first timers do.  But I don’t hold much stead on number 3, because really, you’re running, so who cares what everyone else thinks.

I do support rule #2, I think you should have finished the race for the shirt you are wearing.  It is a great conversation starter, when you see someone who has completed the same race as you, or you may see a race you’ve wanted to know more about and can then talk with them about it.  I personally would feel really weird wearing a shirt and having someone come talk to me about it and have to tell them, “uhhh…I didn’t actually do it.”  But to each his or her own.  The one exception is that you can always wear a race shirt that you volunteered for.  I love me some volunteers.

When I do long races I like to wear the same outfit every time.  I know how it chafes and how it feels and where my gels go, etc.  So I only wear the race shirts after the races, and typically not the same weekend.  I like to wear a previous year’s shirt from the same race if repeating a race, or whichever the most recent marathon or coolest one I’ve done in a while.  It’s always fun to wear the shirt for the marathon you ran on Saturday to the expo for the one you are running Sunday; this is my one exception to wearing the race shirt the same day.

On the other hand, if you’re wearing the race shirt that night or on your trip home, you may wind up meeting new people who also did the race and get to start some interesting conversations.

In the end, it is just clothes, so wear what you feel comfortable with and let everyone else stuff it.

Readers, what are your thoughts on race shirts, and wearing medals around town?

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