If you enter races regularly, you probably have a pile of t-shirts. I did an inventory count today, and I have 31 shirts.

Whenever I bring out my valuable collection, I have my attack cat, Gloopy, on guard.

Pictured below is my favorite one right now. I really like long sleeve tees. I’m also hoping to break into the field of male modeling. Beside a nice-looking shirt, hopefully you’ll find my pose professional and fashion mag-worthy.

I have a hard time getting rid of my shirts, and with a size-able inventory, they last a long time. My oldest one, pictured below, dates from high school. I received it because I ran lots of miles the summer before my senior year.

I taught English in Japan in the late 80’s and early ’90’s and have one surviving shirt, shown below. I was told only executives and the very rich had checking accounts. To enter a race you had to buy a money order-like thing at the post office that took a long time to process

After graduating from Washington State University, I got a job offer in southern California and did a bunch of road races. The below shirt is the only one left from that era. Many years later my daughter found it and wore it frequently when she was in high school. 

It’s a treat to get a sweatshirt for finishing a race, and I really got my money’s worth with the below one. I’ve worn it a lot, and it’s still in pretty good shape.

I’m hoping the misprint on the below shirt will make it a valuable collector’s item. They kept the same design from the previous year’s race, but failed to attach the correct suffix to the 23.

Because I have so many, I take the no-shirt option when I sign up for races, On rare occasions the shirts are so nicely designed, I can’t pass them up. Therefore, my collection continues to grow.

I started a running career at John Rogers High School in Spokane, pictured below. I was a baseball player before that, but in my freshman season, I tore up league pitching with a batting average of just over .200. I had a goal of getting a college athletic scholarship, and it wasn’t looking like baseball would do it for me.

Photo by Colin Mulvany, Spokesman-Review

The few times I was in a distance race in P.E. or racing other kids informally, I did pretty well. So I decided to give distance running a shot by turning out for track my sophomore year.

After two or three weeks of track practices, coach entered me in the mile in our first match, a practice meet against East Valley High School. At the starting line were two experienced EV runners, our team’s top runner—a senior, and myself. I was especially nervous being the only newbie in a field of four.  At the last moment I got a gift of company. A fellow sophomore teammate got put into the race. Normally a quarter-miler, I knew he was no threat to win and he’d be in the back with me.

The race started fast and I stayed with the pack. However, the quarter-miler dropped out before finishing the first lap. I instantly felt dread.

I finished last; however, I stayed close most of the race. My senior teammate eventually pulled away, finishing in first, twelve seconds ahead of me. I ran a 5:01, and my times got faster with each race.

Because of our team’s schedule, I only ran three days a week, and my weekly mileage totals were very low. But interval training was tough—there was no comparison to workouts I’d done in other sports.

I eventually attained my goal of earning a college scholarship, though only for one year of my college running career.