Running T-Shirt Etiquette:

One of the benefits of running multiple 5ks and other races is with each event you get a free t-shirt (complete with bragging rights). After a year of running I have enough t-shirts to last me a little while. But, interestingly enough, I found out there is a right way and a wrong way to wear those shirts. I came across an interesting list of various ‘rules’ compiled online. Here are some examples:

• A shirt cannot be worn unless the wearer has participated in the event. There is an exception, though: “significant others” and volunteers are exempt.
• Never wear a race event shirt for the (same) race you are about to do. Only rookies do this. It displays a total lack of integrity and might put the bad-heebee-jeebee-mojo on you for the race. Wearing a T-shirt of the race, while currently running said race, is discouraged. It’s like being at work and constantly announcing “I’m at work”. Besides, you wont have the correct post-race shirt then…unless you like to wear sweaty, pitted-out clothes on a regular basis. If you do, then go back to the swamp, Gomer
• Never wear a shirt from a run that you did not finish. To wear a race shirt is to say “I finished it”. Exceptions: see guideline #1.
• No souvenir shirts: therefore, friends or anyone else not associated with the race may not wear a race shirt. If your mom thinks that your Boston shirt is lovely, tell her to QUALIFY for Boston herself, & send in her application early for next year, so she can earn her own shirt.
• Never wear a T-shirt that vastly out-classes the event you’re running. It’s like taking a gun to a knife fight. Or like unleashing an atomic bomb among aboriginal natives. You get the idea.
• Also: never wear a blatantly prestigious T-shirt downtown or at the mall among non-running ilk. People will just think you have a big head, which you do. You’ll also get stupid questions, like, “how long was that marathon?” If it’s a shirt to a 50 or 100-miler, they’ll think it’s a shirt for a cycling event or just think you’re totally nuts, which (of course), you probably are.
• A DNF’er may wear a race shirt if… the letters DNF are boldly written on the shirt in question (using a fat Sharpie or a Marks-A-Lot).

Full List: Proper T-Shirt Etiquette

“

The way we live our lives is changed by genre. In Shakespeare, there’s a huge difference between comedies and tragedies…A comedy ends with a wedding, and a tragedy ends with a death. Now catch this: ever consider that the only thing that makes a genre what it is in Shakespeare’s plays is what happens at the end? And the genre makes all the difference….when you know how it ends, it changes how you watch the middle, doesn’t it? … If you knew it was a comedy, and it ended with a huge wedding, it wouldn’t matter how sad or depressing or hopeless the middle was; you knew the whole thing ended with a party. And if you know it’s a tragedy, and it ended with death, it wouldn’t matter how funny, or happy, or likeable the middle got; you still knew it ended in death.

I was thinking about that, and for the first time I got something. In all my semipathetic, confused, and half-baked quasi understanding of God, the world, the Bible, and everything else in between, that’s the only way in my vocabulary to articulate as best I know how what I think Jesus is for humanity. Jesus changes the genre of his followers from a tragedy to a comedy. The good news is, we have a new end.

But the mess is, we’re still in the middle.

”

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On Thursday 4,000+ runners filled the streets of #iloveyorkcity for the annual @YorkYMCA #turkeytrot

Thanksgiving dinner and hike

Ran my best 5k on Saturday, finished 5th overall with a new PR (22:28). Got some more hardware too. 😀 #SDG