Home > Running Gear

A custom Eric Gillis T-shirt to match his inspirational Olympic run

Eric Gillis got his own custom T-shirt at a recent Canada Running Series training run honouring his inspirational race at the Rio Olympics.

Eric Gillis
September 5, 2016
Share on SMS

Canada’s Olympic top-10 marathon runner Eric Gillis got a pleasant surprise when he made a guest appearance at a recent group training run. The 36-year-old Antigonish, N.S. native now has a T-shirt as bright as his 10th place finish at the Olympics.

RELATED: Beau’s Brewery gets in on the beer mile buzz, prints custom label for Lewis Kent.

Designed by the artist who often goes by “Mango Peeler,” the shirt features a photo of Gillis finishing the Olympic marathon as well as his marathon time, 2:12:29. He crossed the Olympic marathon finish line with an emphatic fist pump as he ran through the field. The Guelph, Ont. resident joined runners at a Canada Running Series event on Sept. 1 at a local BMW dealership ahead of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

RELATED: Eric Gillis shares the details of his incredible Olympic marathon.

Mango Peeler, who was so inspired by Gillis that he ran the distance of a marathon on Sept. 1, the day of the CRS training run, also designed the T-shirt for the upcoming Toronto Marathon, one of Canada’s most popular events.

The Eric Gillis shirt

Top 10 Olympic Marathon Runner @ericgillis ????! This man is so inspiring! @runcrs #STWM #trainingrun

A photo posted by V E R Y ~ T R O P I C A L (@mango_peeler) on

“Running with Eric, he gave every runner young or old his full attention,” Mango Peeler said of Gillis at the training run. “He gave us a race recap of his execution in Rio and deep insight into his training methods. His longevity at such a high level is so admirable, but he is such a humble dude. He is smart and patience personified. He keeps things simple and runs by feel.”

RELATED: A look at the numbers: Eric Gillis and Reid Coolsaet in the Olympic marathon.

The Canadian’s 10th place finish at the Olympics was the best finish in the men’s marathon since 1976 when the national record holder Jerome Drayton finished sixth. Fellow Canadian Reid Coolsaet also had a great race at the Olympics with a 23rd place finish as did the two Canadian women in the earlier marathon.

As expected, some runners were asking for their own makes of the custom T-shirt. Mango Peeler has been fielding requests on his Instagram page after he posted to shirt.

The group run was the third installment of the CRS training series and was held at Town+Country BMW in Markham, Ont. The event, which had a capacity of 125 runners, sold out as runners warmed up and did a 5K with the Canadian Olympian. The group’s next training run will be held Sept. 15. Details here.

Additional photos

Check out the latest buyer's guide:

Top 10 shoes our testers are loving this April

We tested tons of great shoes this year, but only the very best make the list