If you’re a runner, and 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 the long sleeve tees. Also, I’m working on a career change, 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. I’ve thrown away a bunch that wore out, but with a sizeable inventory, they last a long time. My oldest one, pictured below, dates from high school. I won 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. Back then, the standard way to enter a race here in the U.S. was to send the entry form by mail with a check enclosed. In Japan, 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. It was my cool weather top for several years. I’ve been in a running outfit rut several times, but this one takes the cake.

I’m hoping the misprint on the below shirt will make it a valuable collector’s item in the future, and I’ll be able to retire on the money I get selling it to a museum. They kept the same design from the previous year’s race, but failed to attach the correct suffix to the 23.

Even though I often take the no-shirt option when I sign up for races, sometimes there isn’t a no-shirt option. Other races have such nicely designed shirts that I can’t pass them up. Therefore, my collection continues to grow.