Thursday, April 29, 2010

Hangin' It Up

Mission Inn 10K
The colorful and rosy time has come to an end, my friends.

Since I joined the Lopers, I've been wearing pink, worn it during both training runs and races, and have been wearing it proudly (well, as proud as a guy can wear pink I suppose).

But that time has officially passed.

I have decided to retire my pink Lopers shirt.

Loper Classic 15K
It was actually a simple decision to make, really. That shirt set a high bar, and I'm not sure I could have continued to reach that bar.

Here are the races I've worn it in:

Mission Inn 10K (Oct. 09) - 50:24 - PR
Loper Classic 15K (Dec. 09) - 1:21:48 - PR
Surf City Marathon (Feb 10) - 4:42:26 - PR
ARMC 5K (March 10) - 23:03 - PR
Run Through Redlands Half Marathon (April 10) - 1:56:58 - PR

Do you notice a pattern?

Surf City Marathon
That shirt is five-for-five in races in terms of PRs. I can't possibly PR at every race I run, and in fact I ran the Lefty's 5K two weeks after the other one, didn't wear pink and didn't PR.

To be fair, though, two of those races were "instant PRs" in that I'd never run the distance in a race before, the 15K and the marathon. But the other races, I felt like I ran my best race possible... and really I feel the same way about all those races.

And I feel like I have to add that I WILL wear pink in races (sorry for the confusion but had a typo here earlier). Next Loper season I'm sure I'll get a new pink shirt, and I can't not wear it when that happens. But that might not be for a while.

When I look back to my non-pink races, some of the performances I know were not very strong, and while that was more of a reflection of my training (or lack thereof) I still feel like I could have done better with some parts of each race.

Run Through Redlands
The training I've had since before the first pink race was great. Mission Inn was my first Loper race... well, technically I ran the Ragnar Relay after joining the Lopers, but that's a bit of a different animal. But from that first race I felt great, and shaved off more than two minutes from my previous 10K PR. And every subsequent race I felt fantastic in because my training had gone so well.

ARMC 5K
So now, I'm quitting while I'm ahead. That shirt holds some great memories. It's been bled through, tears have fallen on it, buckets of sweat have dripped through, on or have been wiped on that shirt, holes have been poked in it time and time again. It's taken a beating but has continued to offer support.

Now, it will hang up in my closet and perhaps someday I'll display it somewhere a bit more prominently. After all, that shirt took me from novice runner to marathoner.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

What a wonderful eulogy!

RIP pink Loper shirt, RIP.

Katie A. said...

You crack me up! Your superstition could rival that of baseball players!
I don't have a "special" shirt, sports bra or shorts that I covet for key races, in fact, I put little thought into my outfits aside from the fact that they won't chafe or bug me. But I do hold true to the rule that I never race in something I hadn't already tried out.
With that being said, I think it is so funny you're moving on! Good for you! BTW, you're the only male runner I know that could pull of pink. What color will the next one be? Purple?

Lisa said...

:::sniff sniff:::

Good bye pink t-shirt. It was fun seeing you in pics with L.B.

Chicago Mom said...

Awwww, how sad and yet it's time. :) But you were so easy to spot in a crowd with that hot pink! heehee!

Jephy's Mom said...

Maybe you should lend it to Danny!

Kerrie said...

I'm sad. Does this mean I can't tease you about the "Lois" thing anymore?

thrasherswife said...

Oh how we will miss the shirt.... thank goodness it wasn't you that was "hanging it up"!!! Great tribute!

tahoegirl said...

You may have to bring it out of retirement for the Mud Run so I can spot you! Just curious if the shirt is cotton or a wicking fabric? If it is cotton how the heck can you stand to wear cotton shirts? It must weigh about 5 pounds after your runs!

L.B. said...

Glad to hear the pink shirt was well loved :)

TG, the shirt was cotton. Well, it was 50 percent cotton, 50 percent something else, not sure. That seemed to be one of the complaints, that it was not really a running shirt. At first I didn't wear anything underneath but when it started tearing my nipples apart, I figured it was time to do something about it. I haven't worn just the shirt and only the shirt in months.

I'll probably write some more about this on Friday's post so thanks for bringing it up :)

Tricia said...

awww...bitter sweet.....

:)

Angie Eats Peace said...

Awww....sad day!