Can I wear the shirt if I didn't run the race? (Read 1151 times)

A while ago I signed up for the Bay to Breakers -- a huge, huge, huge race across SF. I've never run it before, but now I'm in shape to do so, and I was really looking forward to it. I even sprang for the extra $$$ for the technical tee-shirt. Now it turns out that I'll be out of town that weekend. Best friend's wedding -- turns out you can get PG "by accident" at 40, and, no, they won't move the wedding for me. It's all good, and I certainly can't think of a better reason to miss a race. Of course, there are no refunds. I could pick up the race packet and shirt during the week before I take off. But wouldn't it be odd to run around in a shirt from a race held when I was on the other side of the continent? What are your rules on that? Are there some creative options I'm missing here?

Two questions. 1) If you had run the race, how would you feel if someone who didn't run it wore the race shirt? 2) Why are you asking? Are you looking for absolution for something you feel is kinda wrong? If it was me, I wouldn't wear the shirt. But my opinion only counts for me..and my DW....no wait just me. Enjoy the wedding. Cheers

I'm a huge Blue Jays fan and often wear a Jays cap in the summer. I don't, however, play for the Jays. One of my favourite t-shirts is actually from a 10k I ran while anemic and dropped out of. I wear it all the time. In an odd coincidence, I actually wound up interviewing the winner of that race on an unrelated topic for a school newspaper while wearing the shirt. It's just a t-shirt.

The technical shirts have a built in self destruct device that reads your chip time. If you try to wear one without actually running the race they will burst into flames. Tom

it's just a shirt - a tech one, at that - wear it!!

Of course. The shirt's got nothing at all to do with finishing. It's part of the registration package.

Well, I wouldn't throw it away or hide it in a drawer or box forever. I would wear it on training runs, around the house, when washing the car or mowing the grass, etc. However, I would not wear it in a public or social setting, such as to other races, shopping, movies, dining, etc. I do think that, unlike a fan wearing a Yankees cap or a football jersey, wearing race paraphenalia in public projects a message. When I see someone wearing such items in public settings, I assume that they participated in the event. And I assume that others think the same of me when I wear them. But, that's me. Others feel differently about it and see no difference between wearing shirts from races that they didn't run and wearing paraphenalia that "advertise" other sports events, teams, schools, etc. And I understand and respect that point of view. Bottom line, suit yourself and don't worry about what others think.

I wouldn't worry about it and I'd wear it. You paid for it. Have you contacted the race director to see if you could defer your registration for a year? In that case I wouldn't pick up my packet in the first place, but I'm assuming that "no refunds" means you checked and they declined. When I just ran ING, a friend of mine was volunteering all day Saturday. At the end of hte day, the volunteers get to take home the shirts. Since he wasn't passing them out this year, he didn't get as many (last year he went home with 10 of the shirts) but he did get enough to give me a few extra. So I have 1 marathon tech shirt for registering, 1 marathon tech shirt from my friend, and a half marathon tech shirt from my friend. I'll run in any of the 3.