Thursday, January 27, 2011

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?

Photobucket

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!

9 comments:

Bobbi said...

FIERCE!

Unknown said...

That's my daughter. She's a bear of a girl.

Mellodee said...

And then you just throw it away in the middle of the race??? I don't think I could do that unless it was 20 years old, torn in unmendable places, so faded you couldn't even tell it said Baylor, and stretched out enough to fit two people!

Couldn't you just tie it around your waist so you don't have to keep replacing thrown away sweatshirts???

(Obviously, I'm not cut out to be a runner!!)

Sasha said...

Beth, I have always heard those are collected and donated to the homeless.

You do look FIERCE!

Call Me Cate said...

Wow, you've got some serious moves. All of which look better than shivering. Hope the race is fun!

Sandra said...

I'm not sure I'd be able to just throw it to the curb willy nilly. It would probably hurt my race time when I would have to fold it and lay it neatly on the curb. :) Good luck Sunday!

Eternal Lizdom said...

Work it, grrl!!!

I'd have a hard time giving up THAT shirt. It looks like a great hoodie!!

SurvivorBlessing said...

Good luck on Sunday!

I don't like the shirt, so I would have no problems throwing it away. AND if they donate it to homeless people - it's even for a good cause! I wish I would have known about throw-away clothes for the Komen race back in November when I had to run with the jacket around my waist! It really sucked....

forever folding laundry said...

Tyra would tell you to smize...Smize! :)

At the big Bay to Breakers race in SF they collect thousands of sweatshirts for the homeless. And, I'd have to say, good choice on avoided the Winnie the Pooh shirt. I am also in the second category of "avoid wearing anything with a character on it at all costs".

~Keri