Early on in my first year of running, I began to notice stickers on the back of cars at my races. Many of these were white ovals with the numbers 26.2 or 13.1 printed in black. I soon learned these represented the 26.2 miles of a marathon or the 13.1 miles of a half marathon and people stuck them on their cars as badges of honor after completing that distance.
Soon, I decided my stickerless car needed a 26.2 oval, and I signed up for my first marathon. After completing marathon number one in 2009, I went out and bought three 26.2 stickers. I stuck one on my car, one on my wife’s car, and one on my mother-in-law’s car.
Mother-in-law lived with us and we were carpooling a lot back then. I wanted to be sure my new found credentials were displayed on any car I might be driving. I had earned that sticker, doggone it.
In January 2013, I finished my first and only trail 50K and promptly stuck a 50K sticker on my car and the carpool car. I used to chuckle wondering what people thought on occasions when mother-in-law drove by herself and pulled into a handicap space with 26.2 and 50K stickers on the back of the car.
These days, I’m the primary driver of the old carpool mobile. As a result, I’ve noticed the old stickers are looking a little on the ragged side. I probably should replace them.
I’ve earned a 26.2 this year, so it would be OK to put a shiny new one there. If I were to ask for a ruling on the 50K, though, consensus might be it is past its expiration date. 2013 was a long time ago.
Then again, perhaps I’ll keep them as is. At the moment, these cracking and peeling old stickers are much more representative of the driver than they’ve ever been.
Transparent Tuesday
Fiction continues to be a struggle. Maybe my fiction writer creds have expired, too? I’m currently reading some study guides and listening to fiction writing podcasts for motivation.
Thanks for reading,
PS. The closest post I’ve had to going viral was a picture I took at the Columbia Marathon in 2012 and posted it on my old running blog. I had a good many views of the pic and eventually, it showed up on unauthorized memes and other blog posts. This guy (Drew Walker, I eventually learned and became a FB friend with) had way more sticker game than anybody:
Drew Walker’s Car Circa 2012
