Name on the front of a shirt. (Read 976 times)

If either of these sound good to you, then it's cool: a) You want spectators to call your name when cheering you on. b) You want to look like a dork.

I did the name thing when I ran with Team in Training, but for my second marathon I went incognito. I think if you have on the same jersey or run with a team, it's pretty cool...other than that, it's dorky.

if you're fast, experienced, jaded, cool, or don't feel like writing on a shirt, don't do it. i did it for the marine corps marathon. the crowd support was pretty amazing. so many people go out there and spend hours yelling encouragement to the runners going by. lots and lots of kids too. i figure that, from their perspective, its also kind of fun to yell runner's names and get a wave back, or a high five. probably beats hours of yelling 'GO guy in red shirt GO!"

The bibs for the Portland marathon come personalized. Didnt seem to affect me one way or the other

The bibs for the Portland marathon come personalized. Didnt seem to affect me one way or the other

Ah, but if you take the time to hand write something... even if it is the same name as what's on your bib... you might get more shout-outs. Not sure why, but it definitely seems to be true. Also, some races that personalize bibs use really small font. And some use big font. I do know that most of the time, you can get creative with what gets printed on the bib. This is true at Portland.

JK's Principle of Running # 12: If the average runner spent 1% of the time he spends worrying about what other runners think about what he does or does not do actually running instead of worrying, he'd be a much better runner. Times two if you actually care enough to write to frickin' Runner's World, which real runners claim not to read anyway. (That should be good for a nice elitist prick side thread ...) -------------- Whether its "lame" or not I'll leave up to my intellectual superiors, but from a practical standpoint, I know it works. If you think it'll help you at mile 22 to hear a lot of random strangers yelling: "Go, Bubba Jackson, Go!" well then its a smart thing to do. Spectators seem to lack self-motivation. They crave leadership. Stamping a big "My name is Irma" on your shirt gets them really excited. Especially if you're a dude. Which leads to the next point: lame or not, I declare it decidedly NOT lame if you come up with some witty name to put on your shirt that will sound hilarious when the spectators say it. The current winner, of course, is "Nads." Think about it. You'll get it. By the way, I do know one marathon where the race director puts your name not only on the race shirt but even on your bib!. So unless you feel like bringing a marker and x-ing out your name, you'll be wearing it whether you want to or not. Which is why I'm changing my name to Nads. Of course, that race director is really, really lame. So you may have a point.

What is everyone's opinion on this? Is it cool or lame?

I'm okay with it. The name helps the spectators add that personal touch when they cheer you on or make comments such as you're running too slow. With numbers you get something like "keep it up 540"! I wore my Texas Independence Relay shirt at my last race and someone one cheered me on making reference to it.