The Most Important Pre-Race Decision

Ok team, the National Marathon in DC is a mere five weeks away!  Am I ready?  Training-wise, I hope to be....I was on-track until my stupid, ill-timed foot sprain kept me from running for the past THREE weeks. (UGH....Fortunately, my ten-day doctor-imposed running sabbatical is over TODAY! Yay! And I plan on going to a nice lengthy run-in-the-sun tomorrow morning to celebrate and enjoy this Spring-sneak-preview!)  But, equally as important as proper training is preparing my race-day ensemble....What do I wear on Race Day??

What says Rock & Roll + Chicago??

I love this part of race prep!  I like to theme my running outfit to the theme or location of the race.  For instance, I made a snazzy Blues Brothers shirt for my Chicago Rock-and Roll Half, and I wore an awesome Baltimore Orioles shirt (with the local brewery logo, Natty Boh) for the Baltimore Full. I think that's one of the (many) reasons I love Disney-Races so much: there's the opportunity to don your most flashy and ludicrous running attire and channel your inner princess.


 
So, for the National I'm not sure what to wear quite yet, but I want to to represent DC.  I can't wear any Redskins gear or Nat's gear, since I'm a tried and true Balti-moron (Ravens and Orioles, through and through.) And, I don't think I want anything too political....or touristy.

So, right now, I have three or four choices:

1.) My first choice is my "Riverside Stadium" tee-shirt from Vintage Roadside. 

Vintage Roadside is a organization (company?)  that captures logos, graphics and "mom-and-pop" memorabilia from the 1930s through the early 1960s and puts it on t-shirts.  They only use logos of places that no longer operate.  The Riverside Stadium was a skating rink and stadium in the Foggy Bottom area of DC (where the Kennedy Center now stands).  To read the full-story about the history of the skating rink, please click here.  I own the extremely awesome girl-version of this shirt in maroon, and I think wearing it in the marathon would be a fun way to pay homage to a bygone era and a attraction of DC that's sadly no longer with us--especially paired with a snazzy pair of matching knee-socks!

PROS: I already own this (free!), I love the story, and it's DC but subtle DC (re: not an FBI or CIA sweatshirt.

CONS: It's a little fitted under the arms because it's a girl-shirt (& obviously not meant for running a 26.2 mile jaunt around the city.) Note: I think some weight-loss (I have a month) and an long-sleeve undershirt might remedy this.


2.) My next couple choices are tied for 2nd place (a distant 2nd in my head.):

  a.) A Washington Bullets shirt (the old basketball team, before they changed their name to the "Washington Wizards."  After much browsing, I'm liking this one:

PROS: Vintage DC. Subtle. Red, white and blue.

CONS: I don't own it (costs $$) The coolest looking one is a Men's size (the women's version is white)












b.) A Washington Senators Shirt.  The Senators were the old baseball team in DC, long before the Nationals.  For this shirt, I did lots of shopping and didn't like any of the faux-vintage shirts people had made for the Senators.  (The 1940's logo has a cigar-smoking pitcher....why would you change that?!)  So I'd have to make one myself--either with iron-ons, or a website like zazzle.com.  That's fine, but it requires so much more time and effort than a shirt that's already made. (Major Con.)  Here are the two logos I was thinking about:

PROS: Very cool looking logos!(Cigar Smoking Pitcher? Playing Baseball in front of the Capitol? People still do that, so I like that one too!)

CONS:  I would have to create this shirt myself...not impossible, and I've done it before, but generally that means extra time (& money.) 


 3.) This is probably my least exciting idea, but it would be easy to create: A DC flag shirt.  For those of you that don't live here, the DC flag is 3 red stars over 2 red bars on a white background.  It's based on George Washington's family's coat of arms, dating back to the twelfth century. 

PROS: Very cool, and super-easy to make on a comfortable shirt.  (Also, super-easy to make with excess glitter, which is always a plus!)

 CONS:  Probably the most boring of all of my choices.  And, I'd still have to devote time/effort/cash to craftiness (not necessarily a bad thing though.)

So, those are my choices.  Now, what should I wear?  Is anyone else running this race and thinking of dressing up?  Do you like theming your race-outfit to your race?