I never used to think too much about what I would wear on race day, but after going to a bunch of races and seeing all of the fun sayings, mantras and all over creative things that people wear for races, I decided that I wanted to come up with my own versions.

First up is one that I actually had to go searching for after I saw a similar one during the Tuna Run 200. The one I saw was a Carolina Hurricane’s shirt, so I had to try to find a Pittsburgh Penguins one. Amazon to the rescue! It’s actually a bike jersey, so there are extra pockets on the back, but I really like that because I was able to use it to hold my key (secured by a safety pin) while I ran the Pittsburgh Half Marathon last year. 

Next up is one I made specifically so that I could wear it during the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon last October. I always listen to music while I run so I decided to pull a few of those lyrics onto a shirt and included all of the race distances I’ve done (3.1, 6.2, 13.1 and 200 relay). I used a tech shirt, iron-on letters and numbers to make my design. Because it’s a tech shirt, it wasn’t easy to iron the items on because polyester + heat don’t mix well – the key was to only keep the heat on for very short amount of times (otherwise you end up with iron marks on the shirt – ask me how I know!). Since I was making the shirt specifically so that I could wear it during a race, I made sure that the design I created didn’t extend down to where my water belt would hit. Here are the lyrics that are on the shirt:

• it seemed like a good idea at the time
• runnin’ down a dram
• I won’t give up if you don’t give up
• running down the street yelling “kiss my ass!”
• be strong * don’t give up hope * it will get hard * cause life’s like a jump rope

The final shirt is one I made specifically for the overnight relays. It’s another iron-on design, but this one I combined an iron-on monster with glow in the dark paint. I haven’t been able to test this out to see whether anyone will actually be able to read it in the dark, but I plan to wear it for the upcoming relay, so I’ll let you know what kind of feedback I get! In case you can’t read it, the back of the shirt says “I run in the dark”

Do you have any favorite shirts?