Three Things Thursday

1. I’m very happy to report that I will be heading back to the track tomorrow morning and giving my butt its first taste of speed in several months. I know that my form still has a long way to go, but everything has been feeling so much better in the last week or two. I’ve tried picking up the pace during my long run without any ill effects. So now it's time to see how it does with a tempo. I may end up getting there, warming up, and only running a mile, but it’s time to see where I stand. I know that soreness is likely (those right glute muscles aren’t used to working!), but if there is any hint of the burning pain from before or if the pain starts radiating down my hamstring, I’ll be shutting things down immediately.

2. Last night I went to my first CAR fun run.  It always seemed like a great opportunity to have company for an easy run, but I knew that there was no way I could get home from work in time to change and drive to Falls Church before it started at 6:30. I mentioned this to Amy a few weeks ago and she pointed out that it starts at 7:00. Never mind that in every weekly CAR newsletter the fun run and 7:00 starting time are clearly listed in the workouts section. No, I was positive it was 6:30. No idea why. I'm glad that myth has been corrected because I had a great time last night and will be going back again. Also, I should probably start reading the newsletter a little more closely. Who knows what else I am missing?

3. Morgan wrote an interesting post earlier this week about race shirt sizing and the lack of small sizes (or women’s sizing) at many races.  This is actually a big pet peeve of mine, so when she asked for people to post pictures of their worst offenders, I was happy to oblige. 

This is a "small"

Trying to show how much extra fabric there is

Given that I set my marathon PR in Philadelphia, I would probably be wearing this shirt all the time if I wasn’t a tent.  I understand when smaller races don’t have the budget for have men’s and women’s sized shirts, but I think it should be a standard offering at large races.  Since most of these sell out long before race day, it can’t be all that hard to figure out exactly how many of each to order.  At the very least, if it's unisex sizing, there should be an XS option.

I actually got an email once from a small local race the day before packet pickup saying that if you ordered a small you should get there early because they had fewer than were requested during online registration. The race director explained this decision by saying "we've all been at those races where the only shirts left were smalls. We seem to have dodged that problem." I was seriously tempted to email back and ask where these races are, because I would like to run them.  I seem to only end up at the races where the shirts left are way too big!