RFYL GP Awards Dinner
RFYL held their annual RFYL GP Awards Banquet last night at the Dilworth Bar & Grill just off Morehead Street. Each year RFYL puts on a series of races and gives the runners points based on their finish race time from these races. At the end of the year these points are tallied up, and similar to the awards for an individual race, the GP Series offers awards for overall, masters, and age groups. They also gave awards for participating in all nine series races.
The evening started off with the runners gather together to chat about the various topics that runners chat about. Usually, these conversations involve one, two or all three of the following: racing, training, or injuries.
Circling around the room, I chatted with Billy, Peter, Bobby, Robert, Steve, Pete, Chris, Jay, Caitlin and many more runners. On an interesting side note, often we runners only see each other in running attire. The awards dinner is the one opportunity that we have to see each other dressed somewhat differently. For example, I had no idea that Jay wore glasses until last night. This is one of the many things that I found interesting about this yearly event.
Next up was the food. The Dilworth Bar & Grill put out a very nice spread with salad, mash potatoes, pasta, and grilled chicken. Not sure if it was just hunger or just good food, but 2nd helping became the norm for quite a few of the runners myself included.
After everyone had their fill from the buffet, Tim called everyone's attention for handing out the awards.
First, Tim honored all of the sponsors of the series which was a nice thing to do. Making this gesture is important because without them none of this would take place. So definitely, it was good take a moment and say thanks.
Next up, were the top 5 overall men and women awards, followed by the Masters men and women awards, and next were the men and women age groups awards. Everyone received similar awards i.e. money, gift cards to RFYL, and medallion.
Oh, let's not forget the participator awards. Tim and his team gave out about 80 ASIC backpacks to the runners that ran every Grand Prix race. This was an extremely nice gesture. Running all nine races over so many months is hard to do when you factor in family, training, injuries, jobs, and just life in general. Certainly, these men and women need to be congratulated for their efforts.
While we are congratulating different people, we should all take time to email Tim and his team to say "Thanks". For without them, we should not have these many opportunities every Saturday morning or this nice little perk at the end of the year. Tim and his team deserve a nice pat on the back for a job well done.
On the news front, there is high probability there will be a new race on the GP series for next year. Most likely it will be a Harvest Bread 5k event and will be added to the schedule sometime in May.
Other news, the Stonecrest RFYL store is moving to the Piper Glen area and this 5k race will be held near that store. And, no we will not be losing the Shamrock 4 miler. According to the Tim, the people from Stonecrest still want a race in their area as well.
That pretty much wraps up another year for the RFYL GP Series so runners rest now and get back to training because the '10 season is just few months away.
Tales from a runner who enjoyed an evening with like minded people – all runners J
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