What is the worst prize you have ever won at a race?

One RD I know was going on about the prize he'd picked for a local 5K. How it was just mind-blowing stuff, and he'd never seen anything like it.

I entered (because I had to know) and won, and it was a set of decorative eggs that light up.

Got second in a local 5k, they only did age group awards... Okay fine, but the timer had separated out the top three just to announce. The Race Director couldn't wrap her head around the fact that I had to have placed in the top three of my age group if I was top three overall. She just couldn't get there so I gave up.

The Big Sur Marathon sent me a plaque for getting fourth in some division you were put in if you came from a region that got more than 25" of snow annually. I had won a plaque for the normal age group division but they didn't do the awards during the ceremony for this snow division. Mailed the plaque to me with a note asking me to pay for the shipping for the plaque, apparently my $125 entry fee didn't cover the $8.43 shipping.

I won the under-18 division at a 10k in Washington, DC in 1982. My prize, presented by Mayor Marion Barry, was small book on how to stay off drugs. Eight years later Barry was arrested for cocaine possession. I did manage to stay off drugs, but that may have had more to do with the content of my character than the content of the prize.

Ooh, this is an easy one. I once ran a race called Rock the Crossroads, so named because it is held in the entertainment district of my city, and is concurrent with an outdoor rockfest. The race itself is fun, and challenging, as it is run at 7:00 in the evening in late July. But my god the prize sucked the first year I did it. No medals or anything. I just went to the awards table to pick up my age group prize, and they gave me a small, cardboard cut out of a guitar, about six inches in length and a quarter inch thick.

This is an utterly useless item. No magnet on the back to affix to a refrigerator. Not enough weight to serve as a paperweight or bookend. It is simply a cheap, miniature representation of a guitar, solely without any reason to exist whatsoever. I would've rather been given nothing.

And here's a big WTF for you: I once ran a race where I won overall, and I got just a medal, while the runners up and the age group winners got gift certificates. I was understandably perplexed at having received a lesser award despite winning the whole race, and asked the organizer what was the deal. Their answer was the prizes were intended to encourage the lower place finishers, and they didn't think it was necessary to give one to the overall winner.

That's some airtight logic right there.

Beef jerky, for 1st at a 10k. Not just a single bag even but epic amounts of the stuff--two giant boxes of it plus various bags of different flavor jerkies.

I hate jerky.

Fleet Feet gift certificate is always the worst.

I won a half marathon once. All the awards were gifts from the sponsors.

When it came to the awards ceremony, the RD called the winners in reverse order. 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st. The 5th place person got to choose their award first, then 4th place, etc... The 5th place guy ended up with $100 gift card to a grocery store. I ended up with a $10 gift certificate to a nail salon.

I got 2nd in the lululemon Seawheeze Half Marathon in Vancouver, Canada. 10,000+ competitiors, no elite complimentary entries, no placing prizes. $130 CAD entry fee as well I think. (you got a pair of lulu shorts, closed roads to race on, lunch after the event, and a concert that evening)

But the timing of the race was perfect for my summer training, and the start was located a 5min jog from my apartment. Also leading a field that big with an entourage of cyclists, police motorbikes, and a Tesla lead car was an awesome experience.

Back in the 70's, I won a 10K race. The winner got two bottles of gatorade. Everyone else got one.

when I was in high school Dartmouth college hosted a meet that had a high school mile on Friday night, and another one on Saturday. I was fast enough to get into the "invite" mile on Saturday but had something else I had to do that day, so I ran the Friday night section.

I won the race, and got a nice little wooden plaque with the Dartmouth logo on it and the words "Special Mile Champion" engraved underneath...

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

Finished in 2nd place overall. Got a set of steak knives. You will NEVER guess what 1st place got....

Did 3rd place get fired?

When I was in jr high back in the 80's, I ran a 10k in Somerset, PA.

I won my age group and got a coupon for free meal at Long John Silver's. A few still exist, but most have closed. We didn't have one in our town, so I kept it in my wallet for a few years, just in case I ever came upon a LJS. Never did, before losing my wallet as junior.

As an older dude, the prize sucked. Thinking about a free meal, as a hungry kid...I guess it wasn't that bad.

Brianruns10 wrote:

And here's a big WTF for you: I once ran a race where I won overall, and I got just a medal, while the runners up and the age group winners got gift certificates. I was understandably perplexed at having received a lesser award despite winning the whole race, and asked the organizer what was the deal. Their answer was the prizes were intended to encourage the lower place finishers, and they didn't think it was necessary to give one to the overall winner.

That's some airtight logic right there.

The only encouragement he was giving was to you... to run slower next year.

Why are people so weird?

agip wrote:

I won a little race once and they gave me an old water bottle spray painted gold.

haha I once got a gold spray painted running shoe.

johnnymainstream wrote:

I got an apple pie. The pie wasn't the bad part, the bad part was that all the age group winners got a certificate and an apple pie while I, the overall winner, just got a pie.

My worst prize was when I was the overall winner at a Turkey Trot "Run for Pies". Pies were given to all the age group top 3s. I was looking forward to taking home a pie, and maybe something extra for the overall win, but all I got was a 500 airline miles certificate and no pie at all, since the overall winners were taken out of the age group standings. The 500 miles was probably worth less than a pie, and I was hungry for a pie.

Sean Norton wrote:

I won the under-18 division at a 10k in Washington, DC in 1982. My prize, presented by Mayor Marion Barry, was small book on how to stay off drugs. Eight years later Barry was arrested for cocaine possession. I did manage to stay off drugs, but that may have had more to do with the content of my character than the content of the prize.

If only Barry had kept the book!!!

A pen with the Doctor's name who sponsored the race on it.

It was the cheapest pen I ever owned.

A 3-pack of tighty-whities. It was a lap prime prize at a bike race, not a running race though... When I heard the bell ring, and the announcer yell "Underwear prime!", I thought I must have misheard. When I didn't get any $ after and was told to collect my "prize" at the local men's store, I couldn't believe it. It was such a ridiculous prize, that I collected it, and that in and of itself makes it kinda cool.