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Sunday, August 7, 2005
RUNNING: John Rolfe
Race-day fashions certainly run the gamut
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Also on this page: 2005 BEACH TO BEACON 10K | |||||
CAPE ELIZABETH - An important part of preparing for a big race like Saturday's TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon 10K is deciding what to wear. One option, mostly popular among first-timers, is to go for the official race T-shirt. But I didn't see many of these walking around Route 77 early Saturday morning. No doubt the heat was part of the reason. Racing in a cotton T in 70-plus degree sunny weather can be a bad strategy. But I think there may have been more to it than that. It's not that this year's shirt isn't cool. On the contrary, the design (by contest-winning Cape High student Corinne Earnshaw) is one of B2B's best, and I liked it right away when I saw it Friday, on a shirt worn by a woman at the gym. Curious, though, what this woman had done to the shirt. She had hacked off both sleeves and the neck, the way someone like 50 Cent or Gov. Baldacci might razor-blade their togs for enhanced street cred. Or maybe the shirt was just way big? I thought of this when I picked up my stuff at race registration later in the day. The smallest T-shirts left were size L, and the others were XL and XXL, and though jokingly offered an XXL I went with the L, because it looked like a king-size bedspread anyway. When I got the shirt home I measured it. It's two feet wide across the middle and 31 inches top to bottom, and the sleeves are 18 inches around. That is, unlikely to be stretched by runners' pipe-cleaner biceps. Maybe this is vanity sizing, so even Clydesdale runners can feel like skinny little boys in voluminous nightshirts? Maybe the shirt will shrink (if it fits in the washing machine)? Maybe I should sign up for the kids' race next year? Fashion issues came to mind again on race morning. A fair number of people were wearing iPods, for example. And then there was Gary Allen, who lives on Great Cranberry Island but had driven down to Cape Elizabeth just this morning. Which sounds taxing enough to me, never mind running the race, especially since Allen had run 3:06 to finish second in a marathon in Nova Scotia last week. (It was his 50th marathon.) Anyway, Allen had come dressed for the B2B occasion: He was wearing a black bowler hat, bow tie, jacket with tails over his Crow Athletics singlet, and black knee socks, possibly silk. Did he intend to run in this getup, I asked. Of course he did - it wasn't the first race he'd run looking like a Rocky Horror Picture Show extra. And the back of his jacket bore the legend of the MDI Marathon, which Allen directs, so his motives were more promotional than self-promotional. Anyway, he finished in about 42 minutes. Or so I was told postrace by a young friend who saw Allen running a little ahead of him. This young friend also brought to the race his own peculiar dress sense, although probably dress isn't the word. Any more than sense is. His idea (please stop reading if you have been delicately nurtured) was to wear his race bib in a common place (on the chest); but since he runs shirtless, he was obliged to try to suspend the bib from his nipple rings. This he did by using large paper clips to hang the bib from the rings. But when he tried to run, you'll be surprised to hear, the arrangement wasn't very comfortable, so he abandoned the scheme as needing improvement and went back to pinning the bib to his shorts. Not someone you want to be running near during a lightning storm. This guy's motives may be obscure, but not those of Derry Rundlett, a Cape Elizabeth attorney. Rundlett ran dressed as Elvis (the white-suited Vegas version). Last year at B2B he was Spider-Man, which proved a poor choice because the costume's facemask hindered his breathing. At B2B 2003, Rundlett competed in Zorro regalia, but without the sword. Rundlett races in fancy dress for several reasons. One is that, at age 59, when he runs longer distances he does so more for fun than for time. Another is that he enters B2B to raise money for Kids First, and a costume is all part of the game. And also, he finds that the crowd here whoops it up with encouragement for whichever character he is. And speaking of Baldacci, I never did see him Saturday, so I don't know what he wore in the race. But he might be pleased to know that he did inspire at least one young person to excel. That was Abby Armstrong, 11, of Cape Elizabeth, whose family hosted elite Kenyan runner Margaret Okayo and who said she keyed on the gov for some miles, and eventually beat him, 58:23 to 58:53. The GOP may be calling on her for advice. John Rolfe of Portland is a staff writer and a road runner. He can be reached at 791-6429 or at:
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