A Single Mom Used the NYC Marathon to Try and Get a Date. It Went Better Than Expected

A Texas woman has gone viral for wearing her own personal dating ad on a shirt while running the New York City Marathon.Andrea Sager, a lawyer from Houston who also runs a legal tech company, ran the race on Nov. 7 dressed in a hot pink tank top with the words “Andrea, 35, Single. Great Credit. Bad Judgement” on the front.The hilarious message continued on the back of Sager’s shirt, which read, “Looking for a man with more endurance than my ex.”Sager, who shared images of herself in the shirt on Instagram, told TODAY.com she decided to jokingly advertise herself during the marathon because she hasn’t yet met the man of her dreams on a dating app. “I am all business all the time, which makes this so funny because anybody that knows me, I’m telling you, people are like, who is this?” Sager said of her decision to wear the shirt.The single mom — Sager has a son, Thomas, 9 and a daughter, Allie, 7 — said she’s been trying to “switch to having more fun” in her life and that includes making time for romance.Andrea Sager and her kids.Andrea SagerSager, who devotes most of her free time to attending her kids’ sports events, said the response to her shirt at the marathon was overwhelmingly positive.“People just loved it. They were cracking up and honestly, I thought it was going to be the people watching the race that were laughing, but so many runners came up to me. They were like, oh my gosh, this made me laugh so hard,” said Sager.“I’m so glad I wore it because honestly, when you’re running 26 miles, it’s rare that you’re going to have a laugh,” she joked.And, yes, plenty of potential suitors took notice of the shirt.Sager’s DMs are now filled with “hundreds, if not thousands,” of men whose ages range from their 20s to their 70s pitching themselves as the perfect catch.A man’s age, Sager said, is not an issue for her. “I’m not ruling anyone out,” she shares.Sager’s ideal partner would be a guy who’s willing to join her at her kids’ softball, baseball and volleyball games.“Every day is something with my kids,” she tells TODAY.com. “So I need a man who just comes in and just fits into my life and wants to carry my wagon around at the softball and baseball fields.Her wagon?“I bring a wagon to the games,” she clarifies. “You can you put your chairs in there, your ice chest, the bat, everything.”Sager said above all else, she’d like to meet someone with emotional intelligence. “I think that’s the one thing that’s really lacking with most men these days, what a lot of women can’t find in a man,” she says.She’d also like to find a man who’s athletic and financially responsible, as well as someone who doesn’t find a successful independent woman intimidating.Sager, who got divorced in 2020, joked that dating her can be a bit like dating a drill sergeant. Still, as a hopeless romantic at heart, she knows the right man is out there and he’s looking for her too.“It’s just very, very thin crowd,” she says.Sager was so inspired by the attention her marathon shirt received, she’s now creating a new series of videos called “Running from Dating.”“A lot of comments have been from women who are like, well, fine, I guess I’ll start running if that’s what it takes to find a man,” she says. “So it’s kind of a parody, but also like, hey, women, like, get out there, get your cardio in and of you happen to meet a man, great.”