This week's poll

First of all, let me apologize for my spelling error last week. As Angry pointed out, polls are for politicians, poles are for firemen and strippers. That's an error I won't be making again!

The results of last week's pole were overwhelming, with 50% of people saying, "Hellz no! The shirt is for AFTER the finish line, even if you have to run the race topless." I'm of this school, but we'll get back to this later.
One person believes that if he/she pays the money then he or she should be able to do whatever he/she wants with the shirt, including but not limited to wearing it before the race, during the race, and if s/he doesn't finish the race (I guess we won't be able to take his word on whether he finishes his ironman in 3 months either, then).
Two people said "Who cares, it never fits me anyway". This was my second choice answer, but it seems like more and more races let you reserve your shirt size ahead of time these days, and that makes me happy. Other people came up with suggested uses of oversized t-shirt: pajamas, laundry days, rags, and (my contribution) gym towels.
And finally, 25% of voters said that it didn't bother them when a rookie/newbie made this embarrassing mistake, but they know better than to do something like that. It's like showing up to a road cycling race wheeling a cruiser and wearing soccer shorts.

For more on t-shirt etiquette, see this list that Mindy sent a link to. Over the course of the week I've come up with a new t-shirt dilemma, though. My AIDS LifeCycle package came in the mail this week, and inside was a t-shirt. Seventy-five percent of us agree that it would be uncouth to don this shirt before the event. That is, if it were a race, but the LifeCycle is more about fundraising than racing. For example, there are no DQs if you get picked up in the sweep van one day or several days, and there is no ranking. On the other hand, for me the main challenge of this event will be to RAISE more than $2,500 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and missing a chance to be a walking billboard seems like a waste. Also, it seems like the perfect shirt to wear in my picture on my fundraising page. So the bonus question of the week is: Is it alright to wear a shirt for a fundraising event for the purpose of raising funds for said event, even if one has not finished aforementioned event yet? (I now have a link to my fund raising page on my sidebar, by the way (right above the poll). Please consider making a donation to participant #2275 - ME! I realize that the holidays are a hard time to find extra cash, but every little bit counts, and you can always come back later and make a bigger donation when your credit cards have recovered from the holiday season. Anyone who donates before Christmas will get a special write-up in my blog.)

This week's question came from one of my deepest, darkest fears that has not happened to me yet, but I'm sure will happen someday:
This week is supposed to be one of the biggest long group rides in your training program. You wake up on the morning of the ride to find that you have no clean cycling shorts! What do you do?
A) Go back to bed. Screw that, obviously it wasn't meant to be. You'll make it up next week... if you feel like it.
B) Ride in the least foul-smelling shorts in your hamper. At least you didn't pee in them the last time you wore them... you think.
C) Wash the shorts and go out and do the ride by yourself this afternoon when they're clean. Triathlons aren't about group riding anyway.
D) Wash the shorts by hand in the shower and go out in wet spandex trying to ignore the squelching in your chamois. Hey, they'll dry out, and you're going to have a wet at the beginning of the bike in any triathlon anyhow.
E) Do the ride in running shorts. This sport is not for the faint of heart or the faint of crotch!