Finisher t-shirts is not a rare sight in our country. You must have come across people wearing them and proudly displaying their achievement in all sorts of places, from the gym to the hawker center, and from classrooms to a night out. How many of them are they doing it right?
For the serious runner, choosing just the correct apparel for the right occasion can be a daunting and difficult task. The following guidelines have been compiled (in fun), to help the responsible t-shirt wearer avoid potential embarrassment and/or elevate their perceived status in their athletic community.
We cannot claim the creative license for the following list, however, as we found it to be one of the most hilarious articles on the runners’ sub-culture, we are giving you some of the best as a teaser and encourage you to visit the source for more.
- A shirt cannot be worn unless the wearer has participated in the event. There is an exception, though: “significant others” and volunteers.
2. Any race tee, less than a marathon distance, shouldn’t be worn to an ultramarathon event. It simply doesn’t represent a high enough “cool factor ” and sends a red flag regarding your rookiness. It’s like taking a knife to a gunfight.
3. When you are returning to a race in which you have previously finished, then wear the shirt from the first year you completed the race. Don’t short-change yourself by wearing the shirt from the year before. It doesn’t adequately display the feat of accomplishment or the consummate veteran status that you are due.
4. Never wear a race event shirt for the (same) race you are about to do. It’s like being at work and constantly announcing “I’m at work”. Besides, you wont have the correct post-race shirt then.
5. 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.
6. A DNF’er (did-not-finisher) may wear a race shirt if and only if the letters DNF are boldly written on the shirt in question.
7. Volunteers have full t-shirt rights and all privileges pertaining thereto. So there. Remember, you can always volunteer for a race and get a shirt. I encourage this as your civic duty to be a member of the running community. Races don’t happen without volunteers, folks.
8. 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, and send in her application early for next year, so she can earn her own shirt. Note that your mom can wear your finisher’s shirt under one of these 4 conditions- 1) you still live with your mother; 2) she funded your trip to the race; 3) she recently bailed you out of the slammer; or 4) All of the above.
9. Your t-shirt should be kept clean, but dried blood stains are okay. If you’re an ultrarunner, you can even leave in mud and grass stains.
10. Never wear a t-shirt that vastly out-classes the event you’re running. It’s like taking a gun to a knife fight.
11. 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.
12. Never wear a shirt that has more sponsors listed on it than people that ran in the event (are you listening, race directors?), or any sponsors on it that you don’t agree with.
13. If an event is cancelled at the last minute, but the event shirts were already given out, you can’t wear the shirt unless you actually ran the race on that day. This means you will have to run your own unsupported event, through snow storms, hurricanes, or whatever lame excuse the Race Organizers came up with for cancelling said event. If you still want to wear the shirt, you have to mark it with a sharpie, “I didn’t run this lousy event, and I’m all the better for it, thank you.” across the front of it.
Adapted from: Bad Ben’s Trail Running Site
Can you relate to this? Do you have your own do’s and don’ts?
