5 March 2006: Shorts

Wore the crazy flower shorts to church this morning. Gloria once said she doubted I'd ever wear them, so I wore them to the Sunday morning service just to prove I'm not ashamed. In case you're unfamiliar with them, they look like this:

The purpose of this flowery exercise was to raise a little awareness for the fact I'm running the London Marathon this year (in case you hadn't realised it yet) and I was up at the front asking people to sponsor me and support the Oasis Trust's 'Children @ Risk' campaign.

The ridicule was kept to a minimum, which was good, and I got a good number of people to sign up on the sponsorship sheet and a good few more taking my paper flier and saying they'd be keen to sponsor online. Several asked me if I'd be wearing these shorts for the actual marathon itself: the answer is "quite possibly". With cycling shorts underneath to prevent being rubbed up the wrong way, these (nominally 'swimming') shorts are actually very comfortable to run in. Not to mention standing out a little in the crowd.

So we'll see how things work out at the Hastings half-marathon next week. Meantime, if you'd like to sponsor me, check out my online sponsorship page at www.justgiving.com/duncmcrae. And if you'd like to see more photos of the shorts, let me know and I'll see if I can put a gallery together on something like www. DuncanLooksLikeAFruit.com.

Happy running.