Why don't top marathoners race shirtless

Salt Lake City man wrote:

stay cool in the summer heat wrote:

I've actually been wondering the same thing.

It does help a great deal when it's hot outside. The difference between shirtless and even just a racing singlet is pretty big in my experience. Evaporative cooling just works!

I think it's mostly mental. A wicking singlet is covering maybe 40% of your skin across the meat of your upper body - chest, shoulders and upper arms. I would think the mental game would be worth well more than the few seconds gained by the physiological improvement.

I think it's mostly mental. A wicking singlet is covering maybe 40% of your skin across the meat of your upper body - chest, shoulders and upper arms. I would think the mental game would be worth well more than the few seconds gained by the physiological improvement.[/quote]

This is what I also thought. Or rather I didn't think it could make a big difference.

But two summers ago I started experimenting with running shirtless and I found the difference to be pretty noticeable. I'm not a hot weather runner, and this made training in the summer so much more pleasant. I'm not gonna claim my times were better or anything, but whole experience was just a lot more comfortable. It's actually the first time in my life I really started to think about how evaporative cooling works, as the effect was so noticeable it felt like "magic".

Also when you think about it, 40% actually is a pretty big number. Your torso is also the part of your body that produces most heat and that's most sensitive to temperature. Much more so than arms and legs. If you give up 40% evaporatvie heating on the part of your body where it counts the most it's probably going to be a real effect.

A female marathoner running shirtless could knock herself out with the old one-two.

too dangerous a sport wrote:

A female marathoner running shirtless could knock herself out with the old one-two.

And cause countless injuries among male runners not watching where they are going.

Serious question - why do women elites only wear sports bras in very cold temperatures?

They may be wearing ear muffs & arm warmers, but always the sports bra - what's up with that?????

Are they slaves to fashion??????

Maybe if Chanelle Price decided to up her distance but most elite female runners could probably get away with it if it wasn't found obscene.

too dangerous a sport wrote:

A female marathoner running shirtless could knock herself out with the old one-two.

Max King!

Redneck wrote:

might be crossfittin' wrote:

Because they aren't man enough to pin the bib directly to their bodies.

this. If they want to be badass they will pin the bib to their chest like real men.

I guess my question was if the World Marathon Majors are at all tied to the IAAF. I found out that they're "IAAF Label" Races, so that pretty much answers my question.

tgfg wrote:

IAAF says:

In all events, athletes must wear clothing which is clean, and designed and worn so as not to be objectionable. The clothing must be made of a material which is non-transparent even if wet. Athletes must not wear clothing which could impede the view of the Judges. Athletes’ vests should have the same colour on the front and back.

Cuz it feels so good!

i think this is falmouth - not sure what shorter was weighin in at, but im guessing pretty damn light.

he looks pretty bad ass imo

http://www.whalesandwolves.com/images/running/shorter.html

energy associated with your skin absorbing radiant energy creates more heat than wearing a shirt that reflects it back into outerspace.

. . . wrote:

i think this is falmouth -

http://www.whalesandwolves.com/images/running/shorter.html

The caption says "Frank Shorter running a 10K in his hometown of Middletown, NY"

No, not Falmouth.

i got it wrote:

energy associated with your skin absorbing radiant energy creates more heat than wearing a shirt that reflects it back into outerspace.

NO.

Randy Oldman wrote:

[quote]UKTailor wrote:

Why do American's call a vest a shirt

How do you distinguish between the 2 if you call both a shirt

The Americans call waistcoats "vests" and vests "undershirts".

A waistcoat doesn't work for distance running and calling it an undershirt wouldn't make sense, as it's more likely to be worn over shirts.

A more relevant question is why don't the British called a vest a singlet, as a singlet is defined in standard English as a sleeveless shirt.

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You are wrong:

The op and everyone else calls them shirts. So the question which you have not answered remains how do you differentiate between a shirt you wear for work etc and the shirt you wear for running. It makes no sense

You manage to call T shirts a different name to shirts but then go back to shirt for something completely different!

Arabian Horse wrote:

If heat dissipation is a factor then you'd think they'd want to uncover as much surface area as they could

Don't know of any rule against it

Why not?

Because pins are painful.

The shirt is to identify the team in competition.

Numbers can be pinned to shorts or if a tri geek a number belt.