I’ve been walking in races for over 8 years. In that time, I’ve seen the number of women in races grow tremendously! In fact, one race I entered last month had 75% female participants and the Detroit Marathon just had about 55% female participants.

When there are more women than men in these races, when will we get race clothes that fit!

It has been a couple years since I entered any of the Columbus Marathon races. But that year women received women’s shirts. I still wear that shirt — it is one of my favorites.

The funny thing is, when all races gave out cotton T-shirts, they fit! Now that races are giving great technical shirts and fleece jackets, things I really want to wear, they are huge!

For a marathoner, I’m an average-sized woman. I wear either a woman’s medium or small. In cotton T-shirts, a man’s small fits just fine. In technical fabrics, I’m not even sure a man’s XS will fit.

I know from talking to other marathoners that at the other end of the spectrum people end up with shirts that don’t fit either — they are always too small.

OK, I don’t know what the solution is. There will always be people whose race shirt does not fit. But is it too much to ask that when a race has more women than men that we have the option to order a woman’s shirt?

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