Thursday 16 August 2012

Strange prizes

So whats the strangest prize you have ever won? There is marathon in France were you win your weight in Chateau Lafitte and I have heard of an athlete winning a cow and of course theres the athletics Diamond League were the winners get a share of a $million if they are unbeaten throughout the series.

Well in the recent World Quadrathlon Champions in the Czech Republic, also known as the Czech Diamond Men, I received a few strange prizes. Apart from winning 40 Euros of which the Czech tax man took 10 Euros back, thank you very much! I won a shelf.....a wooden shelf. Furniture seems to be the tradition for the world champs and the winner gets a lovely carved handmade arm chair. Miroslav Podborsky must have a house full by now. hes only lost on a handful of occasions during the last 20 years.

I also won some cleaning agents. Google translation tells me one is carpet cleaner for manual cleaning and the other is a universal alcoholic cleaner. Nice! Add to that some cans of Monster and Red Bull then of course the obligatory medal for finishing 2nd in the Vet 40-50 category and also GB coming 2nd in the team prize. If that wasn't enough add in a glass nail file....very useful. I thought it might be a letter opener.
So there you have it, my strangest prizes. I am grateful I won anything and achieved some great times and I also spent a lovely few days away with Ali, Tony, Maisy and my son Elliot, who was watching me compete at world level for the first time. We had a great time, the weather was kind(ish) and we had some cheap lovely food and some very cheap 12% beer. The race organisation is fairly low key and everyone has a fantastic time. Hopefully next year we can host it in the UK!

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