Every so often, I’m unable to run a race I’ve registered (and paid) for. I have a thing about not wearing gear from these races — I feel like the t-shirts are for those who do the work, not just pay the fee. I used to think of it as earning the right to wear the shirt by finishing the race, until I spent $125 on a jacket at the 2006 Chicago Marathon Expo and then was unable to finish. I feel a little weird about it, but I wear the jacket; I did the work, I just couldn’t get to the finish line.
This year’s Soldier Field 10-Miler wasn’t a hard issue, though; I registered, I didn’t make it to the starting line, and I never picked up the t-shirt. No fuss, no muss, no bother, right?
Got home last night from a long trip, part work, part family time, and picked up the mail this evening from the wonderful neighbors who collected it while we were gone. Guess what I found when I went through it:
An envelope, mailed from the company that put on the race, containing the technical shirt from the Soldier Field 10-Miler.
My best guess is that they ran out of shirts and mailed them to everyone who didn’t get one — including those of us who didn’t pick one up.
So now I’ve got this decent technical shirt, utterly unsuitable for using as a rag or other ordinary t-shirt use, that I feel morally unable to wear.
Any suggestions?
The Unfocused Life 
Charity.
So, have you read The Long Walk by Stephen King — don’t.
I read The Ruins by Scott Smith and have never looked at a plant the same way again.
John – Yeah, that’s the sensible thing to do. No point angsting about it; it’s just that it was a very strange thing to find in the mail a month after the race.
Nice picture, by the way. Very arty.
Don – I read The Long Walk back in high school, nearly 10 years before I started running — didn’t mean a damn thing to me then, but 20+ years later, I still find myself thinking about it. Very creepy.
Never read The Ruins, didn’t see the movie. Maybe I’ll give the book a try.