The Story Behind our Signature Tee
The Progress Running Club Signature tee is inspired by emotions felt during mass- participation running events. Mark, head- honcho at PRC London, described his experience as one of thousands of runners cruising over Tower Bridge the first time he ran The London Marathon. There was music playing, everyone was wearing broad smiles and there was a sense of togetherness. He drew parallels between this experience and raving in the 1990's where that same sense of unconditional community was also so strong.
Drawing the obvious superficial parallels is like kicking open goals: Wide- eyed, sweaty bodies crammed in together wearing an array of neon sportswear, pointed in one direction and moving in rhythmic unison.
But, it's the deeper analogies that ring true, like the opening bars of Some Justice by Urban Shakedown (or whatever your particular flavour of music is).
Being part of something bigger than yourself. Knowing that however long you've trained and whatever your personal goal is, you'll be the first to stop and help one of your fellow travellers if they run into trouble. The undulating flow between the meditative and the euphoric over the course of however many hours you are on your feet that day.
It's the fleeting friendships on the road and beautiful moments of solidarity with strangers. In a half marathon last year, having been dropped by the lead pack (okay… and the chasing pack), a stranger asked me what my goal was and in realising we were practically aligned he simply said, "alright, lets do some work". For the next 45 minutes we took it in turns to pull each other along at goal pace without another word being spoken.
Many of us will have felt analogous emotions running into the MCG or at the start of City2Surf. Who doesn't feel a rush of euphoria when the national anthem is belted out immediately prior to 86,000 of you and your peers smashing it up William Street?
It's why the lyrics from The Streets classic, Weak Become Heroes adorn the back of the tee shirt.
Point to the sky feel freeA sea of people all equal / smiles in front and behind meSwim in the deep blue sea / cornfields sway lazilyAll smiles all easy
Our signature tee is printed in Byron Bay on a 150g organic combed cotton tee and is available in Black and Navy from XS to XL
