I’m helping put together an October “ghost run†charity 5k, and need some overall award ideas. What are some awards you’ve gotten or seen other get that you thought were unique enough to remember or want to do that race again to get another one? And yes, I know cash or gift certificates are best… but I’m looking for other ideas besides the typical race awards.
I did a race once where the first overall & masters awards were frozen turkeys. Don’t give a frozen turkey. It wasn’t even close to Thanksgiving or Christmas.
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Tortillas. I got freshly made tortillas at a crit in a heavily Mexican neighborhood - my favorite award so far.
I’m a fan of practical awards. A trophy is nice, but do you really look at it?
I’m organizing a xc ski race series this winter for U18 kids and the overall awards are technical tshirts in super bright colours with a series logo that the athletes can use for rollerskiing in the fall or anything else that requires high visibility.
Practical awards with the logo for the event are actually useful and free promotion. Shirts are cheap, too.
I did a race a few years ago where “the first 100 runners will win a hi-visibility running cap”
The course had a turnaround in it, so I was able to count the runners from the front back to me and make sure I was within the Top 100 - I finished 74th, if I recall correctly
It was a crappy Neon Lemon or Neon Lime Tyvek painter’s cap - I guess they ordered 50 of each - with the race logo screened on it , but it was still moderately useful
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I have a storage box full of T shirts, tech shirts, caps, and useless towels.
Every so often they get donated (except the finisher, boast caps).
Run gloves
Neck warmers
Tuque
Arm warmers (this is a Tri site after all)
Leg warmers (ditto)
Swimmers towel
All can have a logo…
Big brownie points if they don’t have “Made in China” on them.
I love turkey. Am I 1 in 100 or 1 in 1000 in wanting a frozen turkey? Probably. But it would be weird. I got an Adirondack chair once, that was awesome!
I did a local small race in late October that had a Halloween theme to it. The age-group awards were small pumpkins and carved jack-o-lanterns, a gift certificate to a local haunted house/corn maze, and stuff like that. They were all simple novelty things that were season appropriate. It isn’t so much that races need awesome awards, as sometimes quirky unique things are just fun and memorable.
Oh, I love turkey. It was just so bizarre and unusual. The memory of my friend carry around his frozen turkey still makes us laugh to this day.
In October - how about a pumpkin pie? One halloween race I did that was the award.
An Easter Saturday race has given chocolate bunnies.
West Point Triathlon gives away a Cadet Sabre (you can’t do that - but its the best award I’ve ever seen)
https://www.amazon.com/...color/dp/B07NSX38K5/
First Place gets Bill Murray/Peter Venkman, Second Place Dan Aykroyd/Ray Stantz, Third Harold Ramis/Egon Spengler, Fourth Ernie Hudson Winston
The Women’s Podium gets Kate McKinnon/Kristen Wiig/Melissa McCarthy/Leslie Jones
They can trade around afterwards, if they want to
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In a now defunked race indy HIM/ Oly race, they handed out bricks as AG podium awards. Like, full sized house-building bricks. I was aiming to turn them into a patio or something useful. Sadly, not enough people signed up (<- which is the best possible explanation for how I got any bricks) and the race folded. But dammit, I looked forward to collecting them.
My next favorite race prizes were bottles of wine provided by a local winery. Nothing says recovery like a nice chardonnay.
Etched wine or beer glasses…
So funnily enough, for many years the Grizzly Tri in Missoula, MT was the biggest pool swim tri in North America. Most years the podium was full of professionals and past winners include Linsey Corbin and Ben Hoffman . The awards? A big rock…
For our club TT this year, I’m making a lamp made out of old bike and TT parts. It’s points based off of PR’s and/or KOM’s/QOM’s and participation. So being blistering fast doesn’t necessarily win the day. Either way, I already said I cannot be the winner. I don’t want the lamp, it’s my own old stuff.
I haven’t yet figured it out, but want to use a brake caliper to pull the chain of the lamp using the actual brake handle on the base-bar I’m using as the lamp.
Sounds like fun!!!
I keep meaning to make this - as a throwback to my days hanging with the Bike Messenger/Alley Cat weirdos
The Heatwave Classic Triathlon in Ridgeland, Mississippi has been giving out custom pieces of pottery for awards for over 20 years. The higher the placing the larger the piece. Overall winners get huge serving platters. They have a variety of sizes of serving platters and bowls and pitchers, boxes with lids, mugs, and plates,
An in-line skate race I did years and years ago gave away a special edition skate wheel tied with a skate lace instead of a traditional medal. You had the option to buy additional wheels at a discounted price to make a full set.
Maybe it’s typical, but I’d vote for a coffee mug.