Disposable sweatshirt

Often when runners are doing a winter race, they wear "disposable clothes." It's cold standing around waiting to run, so they wear a warm top layer that they don't care about, and throw it to the side of the road before the race or in the early miles. (The clothes then get cleaned up by awesome race volunteers, and I hope they're donated or something....)

Anyway, I went shopping for a disposable upper layer for the half marathon I'm planning to do Sunday. First I checked the clearance clothes at Wal-Mart. They actually did have some cute hoodies for $5, but they were too lightweight.

So we headed to Goodwill. I wanted a sweatshirt, one heavy enough to keep me warm. If it had pockets and a hood...even better.

First I found an oversized, heavy sweatshirt. No pockets or hood, but sleeves long enough to cover my hands. I grabbed it...hesitantly. My disposable clothing doesn't have to be fashionable, but this sweatshirt had characters from Winnie the Pooh on it.

Now, let me pause for a disclaimer. If you are an adult who likes to wear clothing that has cartoon characters on it, more power to you. I bet you're friendly and fun, and we'd probably be friends (or maybe already are.) But see, there are adults who wear character shirts, and adults who don't...and I'm in the second category. Firmly.

So I really didn't like the idea of wearing a faded, old Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt, but was willing to do so because as much as I disliked the shirt, I dislike shivering more.

But I decided to take a closer look at a row of shirts I'd already passed by, and there it was--just what I was looking for! A heavy-enough sweatshirt, with a hood and pockets. It didn't even have Winnie the Pooh on it. It did have "BAYLOR" on it, and while I'm not a Baylor University fan, I'm okay with being mistaken for one at a race.

I figured I'd better take some pictures...after all, this shirt won't be with me for long. And I also thought that all the times I've watched America's Next Top Model should have rubbed off on me. Surely I have some decent posing skills, to make a worn sweatshirt look chic, right?



Okay...okay. My posing is not yet Tyra Banks-worthy. And the clothing isn't quite couture. But it's a worthy disposable sweatshirt, and I'll wear it with pride...or at least with warmth!