Wow, a medal!

[BrumJim]

[QUOTE 3318919, member: 45"]And no medal ;-([/QUOTE]

Exactly. Do you want one of mine?

 

[BrumJim]

[QUOTE 3319030, member: 45"]Are any really gold?[/QUOTE]

That's being a bit optimistic. Not even the Olympic Gold Medals are really gold.

 

[fimm]

I have a collection of medals for finishing triathlons and running races. Some of them are in a big pile but others are hung up on the corner of a picture frame to display them a bit. They're the ones that are a bit more special to me - for example my London Marathon and Ironman finishers medals.
The first triathlon I did was a nice, cheap, low key, local event and the only thing you got for finishing was a bottle of water and some free food. I'm kind of sorry I don't have any momento of that race - but these days just finishing a sprint tri like that isn't a big deal for me so I'm not bothered about a finisher's medal - but the next person might be. It all depends.

 

[Soltydog]

I'm upset now, I've done a few sportives & I haven't got any medals All I've ever had is a t shirt & they don't normally do a big enough size for me, so Mrs Soltydog ends up wearing them

 

[PpPete]

Maybe I'm just being a grumpy old git, but:
Give me a cloth badge, a sticker, .....

At least audax gives you the choice of another useless hunk of metal or a cloth badge - but neither are (usually) included in the entry fee.
Although if you are very very lucky you might get a free sticker.

 

[Pale Rider]

I've only entered on ride with a medal: I didn't get it

Are you going to try again in 2017?

 

[DiddlyDodds]

I dont keep them normally, but kept this one as its a decent one and was for one hell of a long hard ride

 

[jefmcg]

Are you going to try again in 2017?

Too far away. Not even sure about PBP next year.

 

[Pale Rider]

Too far away. Not even sure about PBP next year.

For those wondering what we are babbling on about, the ride @jefmcg didn't get a medal for was London Edinburgh London (LEL) last year, and PBP next year is Paris Brest Paris.

LEL is next run in 2017, although the website was not there when I went to check.

Just to be clear, my involvement with LEL was limited to volunteering at the Barnard Castle control, the ride itself is way outside my compass.

Mucho respecto to anyone who can chalk it off - definitely a medal worth having.

 

[jefmcg]

For those wondering what we are babbling on about, the ride @jefmcg didn't get a medal for was London Edinburgh London (LEL) last year, and PBP next year is Paris Brest Paris.

LEL is next run in 2017, although the website was not there when I went to check.

Just to be clear, my involvement with LEL was limited to volunteering at the Barnard Castle control, the ride itself is way outside my compass.

Mucho respecto to anyone who can chalk it off - definitely a medal worth having.

<sniff>

 

[Pale Rider]

@jefmcg

I've been meaning to ask for a while where it was you, er, stopped on LEL?

Reason is I recall we had a couple of lady riders arrive at the Barnard Castle control suffering from, to my untrained eye, mild exposure.

We found a couple of hot water bottles and had plenty of blankets, but the poor lasses were still sat shivering for a long time.

What we didn't have was a small room to make warm - the control was a school - so I don't think their condition was helped by having to sit in an open plan dining hall.

Not sure what happened to them as we were quite busy and my services were required elsewhere.

 

[jefmcg]

oh, you were at Barnard Castle? I have this terrible fear we have had a long chat, but I don't know who you are.

Anyway, that wasn't me. I was weird at BC; I had a mini-melt down at Thirsk; hallucinated in driving rain in the Howardian Hills; dropped out and rejoined the ride 3 hours later at Pocklington; and finally surrendered after finding Market Rasen was closing at I was still 25km away so curled up in the grass and slept. Then had a huge ham steak while waiting for next London train. And a beer. A lovely lovely lovely beer.

But no shivering. And no hot water bottles.

 

[Pale Rider]

A few riders were talking borderline gibberish, but I don't recall any long conversation of that nature.

If we did speak, it would have been only briefly.

Hallucinating came up quite often, I recall one lad who said he saw Banksy artworks on the road.

He was that convinced, he stopped riding to get his camera out to take a photo.

Working at the control was a real eye-opener for me, I mean, how much can there be to a load of cyclists riding a long way?

The is answer is an awful lot more than I thought.

 

[Soltydog]

I've just got the times through on a Sportive I did earlier this month & although there were only 40 riders did the 60k distance I finished in the quickest time Surely i deserve more than a medal? I don't tend to ride particularly fast & didn't aim to beat any time, so it was a pleasant surprise when I saw the times

 

[gavintc]

I did a few sportive events when I lived in Italy. In Italy, they are regarded as races on closed roads, with points awarded for finishing in the top few. As an old man (over 50), I could 'compete' getting valuable points for my club. The local community sponsor these events and I cant remember getting any medals (maybe I got them and threw them away), but I do remember getting a 'goody bag' at registration. The goody bag was usually stuffed full of local produce. In one case, it included a nice bottle of wine and at another a large loaf of bread. My wife was always pleased to see what I brought home from the events.