This week's poll

The results from last week's poll are in. The result: my readers are slobs! When faced with a long ride and no clean bike shorts, 5 out of 8 readers deemed the "sniff test" sufficient. Well, your nose will not protect you from saddle sores, my friends! 25% of readers are lazy mofos who would just go back to bed and think about maybe doing the ride next week, if they felt like it. And only one person actually had the gumption to wash 'em in the sink and go out with a moist groin. Soggy Crotch, my hat goes off to you, whoever you are. No one had the balls to do the ride in running shorts (I've done that before, after a couple of hours you really don't notice the difference; actually, you can't feel much at all), and no one had the good sense to put the shorts in the wash. I can't remember what I voted for, but it probably had to do with doing like the doggies do and sniffing some crotch.

This week's poll is about you, dear readers:

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who's the baddest assest reader of them all?

A) Leana, who ran 3 10 mile runs this weekend in a 19 hour period, in CANADA in DECEMBER. Leana who ALWAYS finds the best races, whether she's chasing elves or running at night. Leana who used her advanced degree to put on THE BEST cupcake-off in Canada.
B) Bree Wee, who was THE fastest female age grouper in Kona, and ranked 13th among ALL women. Bree Wee who recently nabbed sixth in the female overall in the Honolulu marathon. Bree Wee who runs in neon shoe laces.
C) Rocketpants who has far and away the coolest name and picture on blogger.
D) Me! (No matter how you interpret this, me to mean Claire or me to mean you, you're kiss-up or a narcissist. If you choose D, you lose)
E) None of the above. If you would like to nominate someone else, leave them some lovin' in the comments along with a link so people will know how to find them.

Please don't be offended if you were not nominated. Not much thought went into this post, and your chance will come soon enough. As always, you can vote on the sidebar, right under the link to my fund raising page. Poll closes on Christmas.

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!

New poll

The results are in from the poll "how lame was No Wetsuit Girl"?

A) Not so bad, there are stupider blogger names out there... 2 people, 20%
B) SOOOO embarrassing, why do you think I always refer to you by your real name... 1 person, 10%
C) I know where it came from. I say, BAD ASS... 6 people, 60%
D) I don't know, I don't really care... 1 person, 10%

To those of you who answered A, thank you for your honesty. You're the only people I really believe (except that jerk who picked D). To the people who picked B... well I'm the person who picked B, so I'll just keep my opinions to myself. To the people who picked C, stop sucking up. And to the person who picked D, Jerk, why'd you even vote then?!

Okay, next weeks question comes from a conversation Cranky and I had while I was in New York. I learned before I even signed up for my first race that you should not wear a t-shirt until you've finished a race. In Europe, unless your number was printed directly on the t-shirt, the shirt usually wasn't even handed to you until the finish line. But I seem to see more and more people racing IN their race t-shirts or (gasp) even wearing the t-shirt around the expo the day before. So the question is:

Is it okay to wear your race t-shirt while you're racing?
A) No way, the t-shirt is for putting on after, and only after the finish line. It is the only thing you can wear when it is no longer appropriate to wear the finishing medal everywhere you go. No finish line, no shirt, end of story.
B) I paid the money, I'll wear the t-shirt whenever I damn well please. Who cares if I haven't actually completed the race yet. Get over it!
C) Who cares? It never fits me anyway. Why do they only order XXXL shirts for an athletic event in the first place?
D) It's okay for other people, but I would never be caught dead committing a newbie faux pas like that myself. REAL athletes come prepared for an event and don't wear just any old thing that someone just handed them out of a garbage bag 20 minutes ago.