Marathons/T-Shirts

On Mon, 31 May 2004 18:56:16 -0500, Jim Schmidt <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Hi, I need to pick the minds of you folks.

Sunday I entered a marathon, but due to a combination of
several factors I decidied it was in my best interests to
drop out at mile 16.

The thing is, they did not hand out the shirts during
packet pickup, only upon finishing the race.

i don't know but it seems to add value to the t-shirt.
actual finishers get one. not just every yokel who can pony
up the cash. when you see someone wearing it, there's
meaning. runner ettiquette demands that you wear only t-
shirts from races you finish. i understand their are
exceptions for volunteers.

that being said, i'm surprised they didn't get it out of the
way at the pickup. what did the race form say?

else? ...thehick

Jim Schmidt said:

The question that came to my mind was is this normal for
marathons to wait to hand out the T-shirt at the finish
chute or do they get it out of the way at packet pickup.

Some t-shirts are for finishers, some are for race-entrants,
some are for anybody off the street who ponies up the cost.
Some races have all 3 categories (different shirts), some
may have only 1 of those categories. You'd have to check the
race policy to see whether it's a finishers'-only t-shirt or
whether all participants are entitled to a t-shirt. If it's
the same t-shirt for all the races, then maybe it is a
participants' t-shirt, but you'd have to check their policy.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd
Heinrich in Racing the Antelope

Gee, a whining mouth breather. Such a rare and elusive
creature. If you were so upset you should have wrestled a
shirt away from one of the wheelchair entrants, or some
little kid.

Jim Schmidt said:

The thing is, they did not hand out the shirts during
packet pickup, only upon finishing the race. So for my $50
I come away with an expensive souvenir bib.

Hey, if it had been an Ironman, you would have paid $450 and
not even have a t-shirt. Why do you think you see pics of
triathletes crawling to the finish line? <g>

(Actually, at the expos you can buy souvenir shirts, but
the official Finishers shirts are given to you as you cross
the finish.)

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

Greetings, For the local event (Vancouver, BC) - marathon:
only those that cross the finish line get a shirt, long
sleeved; half-marathon: all who pick up their packet get a
shirt, short sleeved. The two shirts have some different
lettering and this year the colors where different. You
cannot purchase the full marathon finisher shirt so when you
see someone wearing one you can only assume that they went
the distance... susan

Jim Schmidt said:

Hi, I need to pick the minds of you folks.

Sunday I entered a marathon, but due to a combination of
several factors I decidied it was in my best interests to
drop out at mile 16.

The thing is, they did not hand out the shirts during
packet pickup, only upon finishing the race. So for my $50
I come away with an expensive souvenir bib. The question
that came to my mind was is this normal for marathons to
wait to hand out the T-shirt at the finish chute or do
they get it out of the way at packet pickup. Not that big
of a deal, just want to know if I'm being too much of a
whiner or if my irritation is legit.

Just a note: this event had a companion 5K, 10K and half-
marathon where they all got the same shirt (even though I
ran more miles than them). Jim Schmidt
my.execpc.comFanPage.htmOpen ↗
-----------------
Milwaukee Brewers 25-24 5th place NL Central

I have some more information, so a follow-up:

Frank: Everyone (5K, 10K, HM, FM) received the SAME shirt.
The 5K, 10K and HM received the shirt AT packet pickup.
The marathoners had to FINISH to get the shirt. I thought
that was the purpose of a finishers' medal. This is what
kinda annoys me. There was no information listed on the
entry form.

The reason I posted is I just wanted to get a feel for the
policy of other marathons.

Mike T.: Inronman finishers don't get a shirt, but are
allowed to purchase one of those neat sleeveless jackets.

Mike D.: The reason why I quit at mile 16? First off, I am
recovering from plantar fascitis. I just started seeing a PT
last month and is 50% better, but a little ways to go. My
training is not where I wanted it to be, a half-dozen 17-
milers but nothing longer. I knew going in the last six
miles would be rough. Despite this, I felt I had a decent
shot to break 3 hours. I ran a
1:23 HM in early April. Because of my plantar, I decided to
use Spencos (hlaf size) in my racing flats to give my
arches support, something I hadn't tried before. Rain was
in the forecast raceday, and I checked the radar 90
minutes before the start and knew it was coming. Started
out at just under 3:00 pace, but checking my HRM I knew I
was pressing it just a tad. However, I could feel my
orthodic slipping under my foot. Then in the sixth mile it
started raining steady. It stopped by mile 9. At mile 12 I
was at 1:22:15 (2:59:42 pace), 43rd place and running
steady despite water logged socks and racing flats. Then a
minute later my shoelace came untied. I had to stop to
take off my shoe to readjust the Spenco and retie the
shoe. I lost 45-55 seconds and it seemed 20 people passed
me. Any hope of sub-3 was gone. After that my heart was no
longer in it (cliche' about 90% mental). Then it started
raining again, even harder. Then we starting catching the
slower half-marathoners from behind which surprised and
frusterated me due to the fact I had to weave in and out
and was losing contact with other marathoners. My wife and
mom were at mile 16 to cheer me on and I pulled off to the
side and said "Enough". Since I was not going to go sub-3,
and I wasn't prepared for the wall at mile 20, I have
plantar fascitis, and I wasn't going to get a good place,
I saw no purpose of finishing. I'm gearing up for Chicago
in the fall and this will give me an extra two weeks to
train now that I don't need 3-4 weeks to recover. I'll be
on the track this Monday. If had to go out-of-state to do
this race, or had a shot at a good time, or had put in the
heavy mileage, I would have finished it. But not Sunday.

Jim Schmidt said:

Hi, I need to pick the minds of you folks.

Sunday I entered a marathon, but due to a combination of
several factors I decidied it was in my best interests to
drop out at mile 16.

The thing is, they did not hand out the shirts during
packet pickup, only upon finishing the race. So for my $50
I come away with an expensive souvenir bib. The question
that came to my mind was is this normal for marathons to
wait to hand out the T-shirt at the finish chute or do they
get it out of the way at packet pickup. Not that big of a
deal, just want to know if I'm being too much of a whiner
or if my irritation is legit.

Just a note: this event had a companion 5K, 10K and half-
marathon where they all got the same shirt (even though I
ran more miles than them).

Jim Schmidt my.execpc.comFanPage.htmOpen ↗
-----------------
Milwaukee Brewers 26-24 5th place NL Central

Out of curiosity, why did you drop out @ 16 mark?

"frank-in-toronto" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Jim Schmidt said:

Hi, I need to pick the minds of you folks.

Sunday I entered a marathon, but due to a combination of
several factors I decidied it was in my best interests to
drop out at mile 16.

The thing is, they did not hand out the shirts during
packet pickup, only upon finishing the race.

i don't know but it seems to add value to the t-shirt.
actual finishers get one. not just every yokel who can
pony up the cash. when you see someone wearing it, there's
meaning. runner ettiquette demands that you wear only t-
shirts from races you finish. i understand their are
exceptions for volunteers.

that being said, i'm surprised they didn't get it out of
the way at the pickup. what did the race form say?

Quoted message said:

else? ...thehick

frank-in-toronto <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

i don't know but it seems to add value to the t-shirt.
actual finishers get one. not just every yokel who can
pony up the cash. when you see someone wearing it, there's
meaning. runner etiquette demands that you wear only t-
shirts from races you finish.

As the poster mentioned, evry yokel who ran the 5K, 10K or
the HM got the _same_ shirt. It does strike me as a bit odd
or even cheap that someone who DNFed the full marathon
didn´t get it, since it clearly wasn´t a "finishers only"-
shirt. But maybe if one reads the small print:-)

BTW it does feel a bit silly to get a marathon shirt when
one has only raced the HM and sillier yet to get a marathon
medal, but I suppose it´s cheaper to have only one kind...

FWIW over here shirts are almost invariably handed out to
everyone who shows up to pick his race number and one
doesn´t have to actually start or finish. AFAIK only one
marathon has a(n additional) finishers´ shirt.

Anders

[email hidden] (Miss Anne Thrope) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Gee, a whining mouth breather. Such a rare and elusive
creature. If you were so upset you should have wrestled a
shirt away from one of the wheelchair entrants, or some
little kid.

What makes you think he didn't? Although being a runner,
there's a 98% chance the 5 YO kid or the guy in the
wheelchair beat the [censored] out of him for trying.

Mike Tennent <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

(Actually, at the expos you can buy souvenir shirts, but
the official Finishers shirts are given to you as you
cross the finish.)

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

I like that way! I wish all races did this. There's
nothing worse than running 26 miles, then when you put on
your shirt you realize that there's several fat, bald,
blobs who helped out with the race wearing them too. It
detracts from the effort, and I'd often thought only the
runners should get them.

On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 22:32:45 -0500, Jim Schmidt <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I have some more information, so a follow-up:

Frank: Everyone (5K, 10K, HM, FM) received the SAME shirt.
The 5K, 10K and HM received the shirt AT packet pickup.
The marathoners had to FINISH to get the shirt. I thought
that was the purpose of a finishers' medal. This is what
kinda annoys me. There was no information listed on the
entry form.

then the t-shirt has no value. very strange way to organize
from my perspetive. i wouldn't run it next year. ...thehick

Who runs a race for a t-shirt anyway? Screw the t-shirt, all
they are good for is polishing the car. They are cheap
quality, look [censored] and are tacky. The satisfaction that you
ran a race is your own, you don't need to run around in a
shirt boasting about it.

frank-in-toronto <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

then the t-shirt has no value. very strange way to
organize from my perspetive. i wouldn't run it next year.

Of course the shirt still has value: it´s a souvenir of
the event! It just isn´t a genuine "finisher´s shirt",
that´s all.

And while I think I can allow to everyone his own, I find it
very strange that anyone should decide on what race to run
or not on the basis of whther there´s a "marathon finishers
only"-shirt...

FWIW I´ve given away every single of my marathon shirts
(because I haven´t much cared about the ads or liked the
design) and kept only one HM shirt...but I´ll break the arm
of anyone who tries to pinch my medals:-)

Anders

It's my hometown race, so I would like to finish it once.
Then after that maybe Green Bay or Med-City. I'll be back
next year.

frank-in-toronto said:

then the t-shirt has no value. very strange way to organize
from my perspetive. i wouldn't run it next year. ...thehick

Jim Schmidt my.execpc.comJimboWis.htmOpen ↗
-----------------
Milwaukee Brewers 26-25 5th place NL Central

(Anders Lustig) said:

frank-in-toronto <[email hidden]> wrote in
message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

then the t-shirt has no value. very strange way to
organize from my perspetive. i wouldn't run it next year.

Of course the shirt still has value: it´s a souvenir of
the event! It just isn´t a genuine "finisher´s shirt",
that´s all.

And while I think I can allow to everyone his own, I find
it very strange that anyone should decide on what race to
run or not on the basis of whther there´s a "marathon
finishers only"-shirt...

don't build this up too much. the Op seemed upset that he
didn't get the shirt. there's a million races to choose
from. if one of them has a rule you don't like, just go
somewhere else. easy. no big deal to me either way.
...thehick