It's becoming more and more common for your race 'goody bag' to contain not just a medal, sweets, leaflets for other races, and water, but also, a t-shirt, and it's generally a swanky technical t-shirt too. However, what happens to all of these tees??
The "McDonalds Happy Meal toy"
You get your happy meal and marvel at the little plastic toy* inside, playing with it in the car on the way home and then leaving it to gather dust in that bottom drawer of that spare room with all the other toys. It never sees the light of day until you're either having a clear out, moving house, or your parents decide that you don't need it anymore as you haven't played with it for months so it can go in the trash.
You get your happy meal and marvel at the little plastic toy* inside, playing with it in the car on the way home and then leaving it to gather dust in that bottom drawer of that spare room with all the other toys. It never sees the light of day until you're either having a clear out, moving house, or your parents decide that you don't need it anymore as you haven't played with it for months so it can go in the trash.
The "badge of honour / iGrunters"
This is mainly the tough mudder type races, and is generally, but not limited to, those blokes in the gym who strut around 'cause they lift and have completed an obstacle course. You'll often hear a low groan emitted from said t-shirt wearer when completing the last few reps of their set. You'll also often find yourself wishing that on this occasion they loaded the bench press with a bit too much weight causing them to 'follow through' on all that pushing. Heads up though guys, try completing a marathon and all the training that goes with and tell me which tee deserves more respect...
This is mainly the tough mudder type races, and is generally, but not limited to, those blokes in the gym who strut around 'cause they lift and have completed an obstacle course. You'll often hear a low groan emitted from said t-shirt wearer when completing the last few reps of their set. You'll also often find yourself wishing that on this occasion they loaded the bench press with a bit too much weight causing them to 'follow through' on all that pushing. Heads up though guys, try completing a marathon and all the training that goes with and tell me which tee deserves more respect...
The "painter's tee"
It's that bank holiday weekend when you promised yourself/the other half/that family relative who keeps pestering you/the parents you'd decorate the spare room which has been locked for the last six months to stop people going in and seeing the mess. You know, no matter how careful you are, you're gonna splash some paint on yourself. Well you can't wear your going out t-shirt or shirt can you?
The "I earned it so I'm wearing it"
I'm surprised I don't fall into this category; when I buy/own/earn something, I feel it a waste to not get the most use out of it as possible - for race t-shirts, this would be wearing it until it's nearly falling apart, and even then I may just keep it.
The "my precious"
This. Is. Me. Ohhh, I've got another pretty race t-shirt, look how beautiful it is with its wicking features and colour scheme, I could frame it that's how lovely it is. I will keep my precious race t-shirt by ironing it, folding it precisely, and keeping it safely snuggled away with all of it's other brother and sister race t-shirts in its own dedicated drawer.
The "creative"
For those people who manage to find an obscure or slightly different (but amazing use) for just about anything; applications for race t-shirt can range from, bit are not restricted to, making a blanket to a funky outfit for their dog. Each a brilliant and novel way of using their goody bag gift.
The "normal"
The above are probably all figments of my imagination (with the exception of "my precious") to make myself feel better for what I do with my own race t-shirts and tell myself 'at least I'm not an "iGrunter" '.
Some of my collection (well I'm not going to get them all out and risk damaging them am I?!):
*Clearly showing my age here as they're not little plastic toys anymore, they're more like human teleporters nowadays...
Race tees for me come in 3 categories:
ReplyDeleteThe cotton ones, which I place straight into fabric recycling. Others may use for PJ tops. Organisers, PLEASE add an opt-out for cotton race tees, I would always opt-out.
The well designed technical tees: Are added to my general workout wear. Some of them are perfect. See the tees from the Grangemouth Round the Houses race for example- always good colours, well designed, good fabric. And the race is a mere 9 quid. They have a tiny wee logo. Edinburgh Half are also good- good colour, and just enough boastful slogan without ruining the design.
The badly designed technical tee- either just plain uncomfy, or is covered in a thrown-together battle of logos from different corporate sponsors. Sometimes terrible colours. Also going in the fabric recycling, though probably after I keep it for a while thinking, "Will I wear this?".
I very much welcome races with a bit of ingenuity. For example, the Gartmorn 6 gave out buffs- that was a cool result.