Establishing Your Running Street Cred
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
I need to solicit your opinions. I’ve been thinking about a certain quandary for a while, especially now that I have a few races under my belt.
So here’s the deal. You go to the race, check in, get your swag and then drop it off at the car. But you’re left with a choice: Do you wear your race shirt, or the coordinated ensemble you so carefully planned the night before (you know, just in case there are major hotties who happen to run at your pace)?
I’ve seen all sorts of people don their brand-new-technical-fabric -corporate-logo-splattered T-shirts. But this has raised a couple questions in my mind:
- Isn’t this breaking the cardinal rule of not wearing anything new on race day?
- And isn’t this kind of like wearing a Styx shirt to a Styx concert? It immediately brands you as either a Total Poser or Trying Too Hard.
Isn’t it superior (read: cooler) to wear a T-shirt of a similar but different band?* In the running context, this would mean wearing a shirt from a previous race, so that everyone could marvel at how amazing you are for having finished the Aunt Jemima’s Pancakes and Pogs 2K.***
Maybe tonight, instead of wearing the race shirt, my roommate and I will rock “I’m with stupid —>” T-shirts. Problem solved! We are obviously too cool for school.****
I can’t wait to report back tomorrow about how incredibly slow fast I ran this 1 mile race — hopefully with plenty of pictures!
*The band should be of an equal or greater awesomeness level (Bruce Springsteen). OR be so bad that it’s considered “irony” (Burt Bacharach).**
**Seriously, though, if you have a Burt Bacharach T-shirt please let me know.
***”I totally schooled that short stack, and then won a wicked sweet slammer.” Hey, anybody up for another virtual race?
****I also plan on bopping restaurant diners on the head and screaming “GRAY DUCK!” as I pass them.
