Apparently, I Have a Lucky Singlet

In 2005, I won a race called the Patriots’ Run.  It was a fixed-time race in Olathe, KS that was held on September 11th.  Everyone had nine hours and 11 minutes to run or walk as far as they could.

I went into this race with low expectations.  It was my first ultramarathon in more than two years, and I didn’t really train for it.  My longest training run was only 22 miles, and that was a slow run/walk effort.  I saw this race as an opportunity to run a marathon or ultra in Kansas, but I didn’t think I was in good enough shape to be competitive.

It was a sunny 90 degree day, and the race started at noon.  I probably wasn’t as well-adapted to the heat as the local runners, but I had experience running ultramarathons in summer heat.  I coped with the conditions by putting ice cubes in my hat and letting them melt on my head.  That enabled me to keep moving, albeit at a slow pace, while others had to take rest breaks.

Here’s a picture of me that was taken right after the race.

In 2012, I did a fixed-time race in Fenton, MO called the Flatlanders 6 Hour Race.  I knew I was having a good race and thought I had a good shot at winning my age group.  Lap counting was manual, and I discovered after the race that one of my laps got missed.  I actually ran 38.81 miles, but only got credit for 37.41 miles.  I quickly got over my disappointment when I discovered I was first overall, even without the missing lap.

Here’s a picture of me with two friends after the race.  I’m on the left.

In June of 2016, I did an 8 hour race called Run Down the Aisle.  This race was organized by two friends who were getting married.  They wanted to get married at a race and decided the best way to accommodate all of their friends was to hold their own race.  The fixed-time format allowed friends who aren’t runners to participate by running or walking as little as one lap.  The eight hour time limit was long enough that even friends who were back of the pack runners would have time to finish a marathon.

I was still getting back in shape after taking time off to recover from injuries.  I was barely in marathon shape, much less ultramarathon shape.  The race was held in the Atlanta area at a time of year when it’s hot and humid.  I once again coped with the heat by putting ice cubes in my hat.  I went into this race with no expectations of winning, but it’s worth noting that it wasn’t a highly competitive race.  At the end of the day, I had the most miles.

Here’s a photo from that race.

What do these three wins all have in common?  If you look closely at the three photos above, you’ll notice I wore the same blue and white singlet in all three races.  That was completely by chance.  I didn’t realize it until I was looking through some old photos.

I don’t wear that singlet very often.  For races on colder days, I typically wear a short sleeve T-shirt.  When it’s warm enough to race in a singlet, I usually wear one from one of my running clubs, such as Marathon Globetrotters, Marathon Maniacs, or the 50 States Marathon Club.

I also don’t wear this singlet much for training runs.  It’s a RaceReady singlet, with snaps on the front, so you can attach a race bib without using pins.  It seems like a waste to use it for training runs, so it usually sits in a dresser drawer.  That's probably why it's lasted so many years.

I wore it for these three races for the same reason.  All three of them were on hot days, and this is probably the lightest, thinnest and coolest singlet I own.

Yesterday, I wore this singlet for the We Walk Marathon.  This time, I wore it because I was doing race morning packet pickup, and I wanted to be able to be able to attach my race bib quickly without using pins.

Once again, I didn’t have any expectation of winning.  The race had a walking division, and I can walk pretty fast, but I haven’t done any race-walk training recently.  This race is organized by and for walkers, so I assumed someone else would be able to walk faster.  One walker was much faster than me.  At the halfway mark he was about a mile ahead of me, and he was even leading all the runners.  He opted to drop out after 20 miles.  It wasn’t until the last five kilometers that I realized I was going to win the walking division.

Now that I’ve won four races wearing the same singlet, will I wear it more often?  Probably not.  It’ll go back in a drawer until sometime when I decide it’s the best clothing choice out of everything I own.  Maybe after a few years, I'll forget about all this.  If I win another race wearing it, maybe it'll be a surprise again.