Simon Keller
If you arrive on time for the club’s annual prizegiving, you will see two glistening tables. One will be laid out with medals, carefully arranged. The other will be crowded with trophies: some new, some old; some tiny, some comically large.
One by one, the medals and trophies are awarded across the evening. As your hands get sore from clapping and your thoughts turn to dessert, you might wonder what they are all for. And you might ask: how can you win one for yourself?
To answer these questions, there is no better person to ask than Todd Stevens. You will find his name engraved on many of the trophies, and you will find that he knows the stories and numbers behind each one. So I pestered Todd for some details about the medals and trophies available in Wellington running, and his tips for winning one.
A good place to start is with the Athletics Wellington Winter Championships Series. For these medals, you compete against members of all Wellington-area running clubs. You will be eligible to compete for gold, silver, and bronze in your grade. There are 26 grades altogether. (I was able to come up with 22; Todd helped with the others.) They are:
Walkers women and men. (That’s two.)
Boys and girls Under 10, U12, U14, U16, U18, U20. (We’re up to 14.)
Seniors women and men, for those aged 20-34. (Those are the most prestigious awards, and we’re up to 16.)
Masters women and men 35-49, 50-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70+. (Masters runners love their medals, and we are up to 26 grades.)
You will be allocated points based on your performance relative to other runners in your grade across seven winter races: the Shaw Baton Relay, the University Relay, the Vosseler Shield, the Dorne Cup, the Wellington Cross-Country Championship, and the Wellington Road Championships (shorter or longer version, depending on your grade). Your score in the championships is calculated using your best five results across the seven races – unless you are under 18, in which case the road 10k doesn’t count and it’s your best four races out of six.
You are only eligible for points if you are signed up as a racing member of a club – in your case, Wellington Scottish.
Todd’s tip 1: Sign up! Make sure your membership is paid at least a week before your first inter-club race of the winter season. This is a good way to get a jump on your potential rivals.
Mirroring the Wellington championships are the Scottish club championships. Again, we have three medals to award in each of the 26 grades. As Todd says, that makes 78 medals. In a club with around 200 members, the odds are looking good.
The club championships award points for only three races: the Dorne Cup, the Wellington Cross-Country Championship, and the Wellington Road Championships. For these medals, what counts is your position relative to other Scottish members in your grade. In the case of runners scoring equal points (we have a plan for everything), the Wellington Cross-Country serves as a tiebreaker.
Todd’s tip 2: Show up! Often, the winner is not the fastest or most talented athlete, but the one who accrues points in every event.
The club also awards a range of handicap trophies, awarded to the first on handicap in a specific club race – like the Centennial Cup at the Island Bay race, traditionally held early in the winter season, and the Baudinet Cup and Ladies Open Handicap Trophy for the Titahi Bay race, which usually marks the end of the winter season.
Then, there is a handicap trophy for the best performing male relative to handicap in at the Wellington 10km road championships, and the Alan Curwen Memorial Trophy for the best performance by a female member relative to their handicap over the three interclub cross-country races (the Vosseler Shield, Dorne Cup, and Wellington Cross-Country).
Todd’s tip 3: Fool the handicapper! Pretend to be slow or injured. You’ve heard about the tyranny of low expectations, but have you heard about the trophy?
Oh, and there also is the Fred Silver Memorial Trophy, which is awarded for overall interclub excellence. This trophy is determined by placings in the four major interclub races (Vosseler Shield, Dorne Cup, Wellington Cross-Country, and Wellington Road Championships).
If you are not so keen on running the interclub races, you could take the easy option and lay down a super-fast marathon. The club awards special trophies for the fastest marathon by a club member across the previous year, one for women and one for men.
Todd’s tip 4: Train hard! Run fast! Self-explanatory. Whatever.
Not every contribution to the club comes from running or walking fast. Each year, a club member receives the Valued Services Trophy, for contribution to administration.
The most enigmatic award is the Personality of the Year Trophy. When I asked Todd what this one is for, he said that if you have to ask, then you’re never going to win it, so best to give up now. That is not a helpful tip.
It might sound like we have a lot of trophies, but if you would like to donate a new one, there are some gaps still to be filled. For example, we are hopeful of soon adding a trail-running trophy to the list.
You might think that you now deserve the Award for Reading This Far, but no one has donated a trophy for that yet.
All the medals and trophies mentioned so far are for individual success. Running and walking are team sports too. Another way to win a medal is to join a team at the Shaw Baton, University Relay, Needle Relay, or National Road Relay. Win or lose, succeed or fail, everything is better when you are part of a team. (I need a co-author.)
If all else fails, remember that running and walking for Wellington Scottish are fun. Even going to the prize-giving is fun. When you come to prize-giving, enjoy the company of your clubmates and feel a touch of compassion for those who win medals and trophies and have to work out where to keep them.
Todd’s tip 5: Enjoy your running! Show everyone that you can have fun without needing to win something. There should be a trophy for that.