I'd love to steal Tim's format and have categories for a bunch of different things, but I didn't run enough races in 2012 to do anything along those lines. Thinking and looking back, the number of races stands at seven. One 5k, two 5 mile/8k, one 10k, two half-marathons, and one marathon.
New Year's Day Dash (5 miles)
Crazylegs (8k)
Flying Pig Marathon
Tri 4 Schools 5k
Haunted Hustle (half)
Tyranena Beer Run (half)
Berbee Derby (10k)
Something that surprises me about that list is that four of the seven are races I haven't done before. For a few years it felt like I was doing the same five or six races every year, with nothing new.
Anyways, onto the random category award winners for 2012... (FINGER DRUM ROLL PLEASE!)
Best Medal: Flying Pig
Only three of the races I ran this year gave out medals (Flying Pig, Haunted Hustle, and the Tyranena Beer Run), so there isn't a wide variety to choose from here, but the Pig's medal is simple but classy. (The back has, as I'm sure sure you can guess, the butt of the pig.)
Best Atmosphere: Crazylegs
Next year I'll call this the Crazylegs award. Otherwise I would likely give this to Crazylegs every year... Yes, I'm biased, but if you've done Crazylegs, you'd understand.
This year was a special Crazylegs for me. First, my beautiful wife Vanessa upped the ante on what each of us will do to run this race. (Not that she had much to top, the biggest extreme was us driving over from Waukesha through a monsoon...) She had a night shift starting at 7:00 Friday night, that ended at 7:30 Saturday morning, all of 2 1/2 hours before the race started. The trooper she was that day, she came home, changed, and begrudgingly ran the race.
Second, my sister Kendra ran her very first race that day, through likely shin splints none the less. Due to the wave start that Crazylegs has, I was able to run my race, put some warm clothes on quickly (it was a cold/rainy day), and run up to Breese Terrace quickly to see Vanessa run by (and give her the now traditional yell of, "THEY'RE DRINKING ALL YOUR BEER!"). After seeing her go by, I was able to run out to the two mile mark of the course and see Kendra run by (and then was able to see her a couple more times before the finish).
Even beside those two things, Crazylegs is always a see of red and white. The race has grown to over 20,000 Badger supporters that will brave just about any form of weather to support their school and teams.
Best Event: Tyranena Beer Run
If you read my race report, you'll likely understand why I loved this event. Not only did I PR, but I got two free beers (none of the Macro Brew Lite/Light that Crazylegs buys in mass quantities either) and a lasagna meal, in addition to an expansive post-race spread, decent medal, and acceptable shirt.
Best Cause: Tri 4 Schools 5k
I'll be honest, I only know what charities/organizations received money from a few of the races I ran. Crazylegs goes to the UW Athletic Department, the Berbee Derby goes to an organization that buys computers and technology education type things for local schools, and Tri 4 Schools goes to the organization that runs the race... Tri 4 Schools.
The money from this event and a couple of others goes to put on small triathlons for kids ranging from 3 to 14 and to buy gym/fitness equipment for local schools. Now whether you feel that kids as young as 3 should be doing a triathlon, that is up to you. In my opinion, anything that we can do to make sure the youth of this country spend a few more minutes outside and a few less minutes playing video games or watching TV is a good thing.
Let's do one more category... (I swear 12 months from now I'll plan this out better...)
Best Shirt or SWAG: Flying Pig
Either way this was going to Flying Pig. Thinking back to the other races, none of the shirts were that great (NYDD - none, Crazylegs - same damn Gilden cotton shirt, T4S - tech, but super heavy (this one is fine, not great), HH - would be fine, except their printer sucks, there are smudges all over the back, TBR - fine, cotton, but better quality than Crazylegs, BD - always the same damn long sleeve styling with different colors), and none of them really gave away SWAG (save for beer or a cheap bag (thanks Haunted Hustle!...).
I wear the shirt quite a bit for running and the gym bag is used almost every day (when I go to the gym). (Evidently they give out something similar to the gym bag every year. I saw a backpack in an airport once, beyond that I'm not sure what they've given)
No comments:
Post a Comment