Race Trophies

Monday morning, after 48 hours of rest, both of us went running here in Highlands.  I ran an easy two miles with only a slight twinge in that right knee; I know I need to be careful with my training, especially with starting speed work again.  Martha ran four miles and also reported feeling no ill effects from her half marathon.

There may be some spur-of-the-moment opportunities to race in the next few weeks, but the next real race we have on the calendar is The Turkey Strut on Thanksgiving Day in Winston-Salem. I have run races on Thanksgiving morning more than once - Turkey Trots and Gobble Wobbles - but Martha has not, so she is looking forward to the experience of recognizing this national day of giving thanks by taking part in a race and being grateful for our health and fitness.  I suppose this could also fall under the category of what my Dad used to call "working up an appetite" when I was a boy; he would often take us on a vigorous walk on Thanksgiving morning so that the appetite was sharp and the stomach rumbling when the turkey was delivered to the dinner table.

Meanwhile, our trophies are still on the kitchen table, where they will remain for several days.  I used to keep the finish time on my watch after a marathon until the next race, so that I could gaze at it from time to time in simple pride.  Be proud of your accomplishments, runners!  Dangle that finisher's medal from the knob of a kitchen cabinet for a few days.  My shelves have filled up with trophies over the years - not that I am an exceptional runner, but you sometimes manage to bring home some hardware when you go to races, and the Bethel 5-K was race number 179 for me.  Trophies used to look like this:

Several years ago, plastic trophies seemed to fall out of vogue, and we began to see wooden plaques, and then engraved beer mugs - we have a cabinet full of those.  But my favorite trophies are the unique ones, the hand-made ones.  Martha's finishers medal for Bethel is a delicate piece of ceramic, the kind that could easily break if dropped:

Age group awards were also unique - small pieces of pottery, smaller than a coffee cup, more akin to delicate Japanese tea cups.  I thought there might have been a slight resemblance to the man and woman who won them!