49 replies to this topic

[Jogger]

I have now opened nominations for each category of the awards ie you can nominate items that people can vote for when voting opens on 1st December.

We will start with the same categories as last year - I guess if you want any new categories you should suggest them in this thread.

Nominations can be made here.

Awards Categories - The awards categories are as follows:

Race Section

Best Australian 10km Race
Best Australian Half-Marathon Race
Best Australian Marathon Race
Best Australian UltraMarathon Race (longer than a marathon)
Best Australian "Other distance" Race
Best Australian Regional Race (>100kms from capital city)
Most Scenic Australian Race

Athlete Section

Best Australian Male Athlete
Best Australian Female Athlete
Best Overseas Athlete (male or female)

Community Section

CoolRunning's favourite running shop
CoolRunning's favourite running club
CoolRunning's favourite thread of the year
CoolRunning's most accomplished athlete of the year (must have posted at least once, your definition of accomplished)
CoolRunning's most inspirational runner
CoolRunning's ambassador of the year
Best CoolRunner photo in the photo gallery (enter the url)
This year's most worn brand of running shoes (enter model YOU wore most)
This year's most essential running accessory (eg Bodyglide, Mp3 player, GPS)
Favourite Running Blog
Most commented CoolRunning thread of the year (can't vote on this - a scan of the messageboards will suffice)

[vat]

Good to see them back

Quick suggestion: given the prominence of blogging this year, might some awards in this area be appropriate?  Something like Blog of the Year, Blog Entry of the Year?

[Jogger]

yes I like the blog of the year - must be someone listed here - I will add that tonight.

Edit: I have now added the blog as a new section at the bottom of the nominations form

[Silent Bob]

Must say there are some sensational nominations LMFAO , if there is an award for funniest nomination-- The European Nipple Torture Clamps gets my vote,

This year's most essential running accessory
Nomination:  

Bodyglide
CR hat
Garmin Forerunner
Heart Rate Monitor
KY Jelly
MP3 player
R4YL Cap
Shoes
Shorts
Vaseline
No-Doz
Garmin Forerunner
Tiara
Fishnet stockings
Camelbak
Condoms
Espresso
jelly beans
European Nipple Torture Clamps

[Jogger]

I will be spring cleaning the nominations and removing the donkey nominations every few days (sorry - my definition of donkey).

[Jogger]

Voting starts next Thursday (1st December). I was sent this in an email:

Before voting starts, you should set up a special section of threads, where the back-ground of some of the more obscure nominations can be  
expanded apon,  by those who know something about these nominations. This would then become a forum for both "additional information" and  
Lobbying"

yeah good idea - why not respond to this thread.

[tank girl]

Hey, I was dead serious about a  tiara and fishnets. They worked a charm, I ran about 5 minutes faster than anticipated and got way more crowd support than expected. And I'll do it all again next year.

[Jogger]

tank girl, those items were removed as I thought they were of the same ilk as nipple clamps, condoms etc. If you re-submit a nomination I will leave them in.

[2Hefty]

Maybe if there is room, another category could be added - favourite sports/running magazine - R4YL, Runners World, Alpha, inside Sport, ...

[Jogger]

Good idea - I have added that in now.

[tank girl]

It's the 2nd of December today - do we get to vote?! (It's going to be tricky to vote for my fave blog too, given how many of them I read)

[Jogger]

yes I know I said voting opens on the first but I am away with work at the moment, and am on restricted time. Definitely Sat 3rd at the latest.

[undercover brother]

quote:

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the big cheese says...
tank girl, those items were removed as I thought they were of the same ilk as nipple clamps, condoms etc. If you re-submit a nomination I will leave them in.

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whats wrong with condoms as a nomination?
kevin r u suggesting that we go bareback if the 'situation arises' mid run?   ;)

[Jogger]

quote:

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whats wrong with condoms as a nomination?

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There is nothing wrong with condoms, but I don't believe it is a serious nomination for "This year's most essential running accessory". I suspect the usage level of condoms whilst running is something well less than 0.1%

[tank girl]

quote:

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Originally posted by undercover brother:
whats wrong with condoms as a nomination?
kevin r u suggesting that we go bareback if the 'situation arises' mid run?    ;)  

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LOL, you should not allow the situation to arise - think of how your finishing time could blow out. (Or more embarrassingly, not blow out  ;)  )

quote:

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Originally posted by KevinTiller:
yes I know I said voting opens on the first but I am away with work at the moment, and am on restricted time. Definitely Sat 3rd at the latest.

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You work too hard, and I'm just too eager to vote.  Thanks Kevin, we do appreciate you  :D

[undercover brother]

quote:

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LOL, you should not allow the situation to arise - THINK of how your finishing time could blow out.

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i guess there in lies the difference between men and women.

[tim]

quote:

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There is nothing wrong with condoms, but I don't believe it is a serious nomination for "This year's most essential running accessory".  

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you would think differently if you had a leech down your pants!!

[undercover brother]

well i guess that would add new meaning to the word 'protection'

[tim]

don't talk to me you KT hater!!

[Rudolf]

KT 26 splits You appart, condoms brings You together

[Colin]

quote:

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Originally posted by KevinTiller:
I will be spring cleaning the nominations and removing the donkey nominations every few days (sorry - my definition of donkey).

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Raised my eyesbrows at some of the nominations still in there under , for example, 'Best Athlete' inc Mark Schwarzer, Boof, Kevin, Schapelle Corby and under 'Inspirational Runner' I think Sparkie (and others) should be embarrassed to be there.

Sorry Sparkie  :)

[tim]

quote:

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I will be spring cleaning the nominations and removing the donkey nominations every few days (sorry - my definition of donkey).  

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so you will be deleting the lemons.

[Sparkie]

quote:

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and under 'Inspirational Runner' I think Sparkie (and others) should be embarrassed to be there  

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surprised, but not embarassed...

I know you are anti-blog Colin, but I have kept a year-long commentary with my numerous injury battles this year (stress fractures, twisted ankles, pulled hamstrings), as well as my long-term goals, and my attempts at mastering new athletics events.  This is not Team Hoyt stuff, but I do know a couple of people that have got something out of reading it, and following my progress and setbacks.

I think MPHaz's achievements this year have been awesome, but you could say that all he did was train hard and race well.  Inspriration is in the eye of the inspired.

This is not a plug for why I should win - I don't think I should, but a defence of trying to tightly define a loose term like 'inspirational'.  

And thanks to whoever nominated me.

[Easy Tiger]

Great post Colin!  :rolleyes:  
Always been a fan of your confrontational style, in fact sometimes it inspires me...doh i should've nominated you. Glad to see you're now deciding who CR's should draw inspiration from, it was only a matter of time before this became your responsibility. I nominated Brightshoes, is that ok?   ;)

[Colin]

I should have known that people will take it personally, and others will think that "I'm deciding who is or isn't inspirational", which I'm NOT doing.
Its just my opinion of the nominations in line with Kevin's comment re spurious ones.

It does not have to be anyone else's opinion.

btw, I see 'Gorden Tallis' is still in the nominations for 'best female athlete'. Is it ok to point that out? Or do I need Easy Tiger's imprimatur?    ;)    

Sorry Sparkie, if I chose you as an example, there are others too. (I actually thought you'd be the last one to take it personally).
And maybe 'surprised' is a better description, I accept that.

It was not a personal dig at you at all. Maybe I should have used someone else as an example   :o  

In fact, there are other categories for which I think a nomination for you is certainly justified.  :)  

Now if I were nominated given the same circumstances as you I would be worried. Thats my opinion only.

On blogs. I am not anti-blog (where do you get that from). There are lots of blogs which I find very interesting and worthwhile.

I just don't however, find general people's daily chores and activities interesting. I'd rather let people's actions speak louder than their words. If one personally needs to tell people of one's inspiring, or not, experiences, then that by itself negates the inspiration value.

I myself have had a good year. After more than ten years of battling with sciatica, in the last two years I tore a medial ligament badly, and then got the onset of rigid toe from a soccer injury.
The toe cannot be fixed, and WILL get worse according to all advice, and ultimately will require fushion or joint replacement, which will curtail my running.   <_<  

Every step is like a hammer blow on the toe, and all advice has cautioned me against running. Will just have to suffer when I'm older.
It limits the type of training I can do, and ditto my sciatica/back.

However, this year I have run 2000 km, including a sub 3hr marathon, also running the last 16km of Canberra with a torn achilles (bloody stupid in fact , just in order not to DNF a marathon), and doing around 18 events.

However, were I to put how I did this in a blog or not, I DO NOT think its inspiring at all.

Its just running. Thats all. You run with what you've got. There's nothing I can do about the toe, so I just run on it and take the pain.
I have a choice, I can stop running and it gets worse slowly or I keep running and it rapidly deteriorates.

There are people with far more impediments that do events far tougher than I do, and I find THEM inspiring.

But since you have taken it personally and mentioned that you've inspired people, you must also balance this against the fact that as a very talented runner, who has some incredible times over 800 etc, and still in the prime age of athletics, you have not succeeded in the "long term goals" that you yourself have announced over the last two years (sub 2:40 mara, sub 34 10km, sub 9 3km etc). And it appears to me (I may be wrong, if so sorry), you have let some of these goals go when not met.

I do wish you well in the decathlon.   :)  

Easy Tiger,
As stated above, you don't need my permission to nominate anyone, but Brightshoes is someone that really inspires me, running some times at two years older than me, that I did 20 years ago.

I will definitely vote for him, thanks for nominating him.   :)

[Stu Mac]

quote:

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Originally posted by KevinTiller:
yes I know I said voting opens on the first but I am away with work at the moment, and am on restricted time. Definitely Sat 3rd at the latest.

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Am I missing something????  I still cannot see where I can vote?

And just on another topic, isn't it funny how there are posters that you always ignore their long winded posts....

[Sparkie]

quote:

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Sorry Sparkie, if I chose you as an example, there are others too. (I actually thought you'd be the last one to take it personally).
And maybe 'surprised' is a better description, I accept that.

It was not a personal dig at you at all. Maybe I should have used someone else as an example  

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Here's the rub - I wasn't offended - but you were implying that the person who nominated me had missed the point about what is inspirational.  If prompted, I would point to a host of others who had achieved far better results, or overcome much greater adversity - as I said, I don't think I should win or even trouble the talliers in any way.  

But I will immodestly admit that I have kept a pretty strong positive outlook through some of the darker periods this year, and would hope that other runners facing similar setbacks could draw encouragement from this attitude.  

  

quote:

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And it appears to me (I may be wrong, if so sorry), you have let some of these goals go when not met.

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The marathon yes - just not my event, I'm afraid.  The 2:40 was a challenging goal at the time I was training for a marathon, but certainly did not have a time-frame beyond that one race.  If I never run a marathon again, and die with a 3:10 PB, it wouldn't bother me.

The 34 minute 10km and 9 minute 3000m are alive and well - writen down for me to see, but not that obvious to others.  I am guilty of changing focus from time to time, but rarely without due cause - the double decathlon has been a goal pretty much since I discovered the event existed, and most other goals are about supporting that.

[Jogger]

Voting will be open this evening - I am going through the nominations now.

fyi - by "athlete" we mean runner or track and field athlete - sailors, soccer players etc are not counted.

by running club, there is a fine and very grey line between the traditional sense of running club or a "new-fangled club" that is really a personal trainer's group. I have decided to use my own definition of "if you have to pay by the session then its not a club - clubs charge by the year".

[Jogger]

Voting is open here and closes at 23:59 on the 21st December (Sydney time).

I decided to allow the "private training groups operated by a single person" into the clubs section after a protest - only after it was pointed out that similar were included last year. I still don't consider those clubs - maybe that's worthy of separate discussion ?

On the "favourite thread" section I decided to exclude all threads from the community chatter section on the basis of that's allowing too much trash in.

Next year, for items like "most inspirational", "best blog" etc we will ask for a reason for the nomination as well and set a limit on a max number of nominations eg 20. I suspect that people were self-nominating or just nominating their mates.

[freespiritfitness]

I'm a little confused by the idea that a club started by a personal trainer is somehow less of a club than one started by anybody else.

Is it because it makes money?

  Does the fact that it is part of a business somehow taint the purity of the running involved?

Here are the facts about our particular club;
* I do not run it on my own , I also employ a fellow cool runner once a week.

* Since our inception we have introduced over 180 people to running  and  to cool running.

* I could make far more money training individual clients than I do for the time spent planning,promoting and running our club. I do it because I love running and because I love to see this enthusiasm being sparked in others and yes because I'm running a business, I make no aplogy for that.

* I don't charge by the year because I want it to be a casual session that people can turn up to at anytime on a pay as you use basis.

So the next time some tragic pindick decides to protest about something or tries to exclude others for goodness sake please THINK first.

Look at your motivation and try to get some perspective - it's a relatively small, albeit very good, running website for f#*k's sake!!  NOT  the United Nations.

We live in a country and indeed a world that is currently governed by small minded anal pedants, if this is ever going to change then it needs to change on an individual level first.

Merry Christmas.
Tim

[tank girl]

Tim (freespiritfitness),

I think there's a clear difference between a running group where the money goes to a trainer, and a running group where the money goes towards improving the experience of all club members (e.g. funding for club uniforms, monthly breakfasts, or the Endeavour Relay).

That being said, I agree that trainer-based groups shouldn't be excluded - one look at most of these groups shows that they're as dedicated to the team as any other club - perhaps they should be in a separate category instead.

[Sparkie]

If 'RunClub' has been removed from the list (I have already voted and can't go back and check) then it is indeed a travesty.  They are just as much a club as anyone else on the list.

Protest registered.

[Tubby]

Rugby League players are so overrated as sportsmen. Clearly Gordon Tallis is nowhere near being one of our best female athletes.

[vat]

quote:

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Originally posted by Sparkie:
If 'RunClub' has been removed from the list (I have already voted and can't go back and check) then it is indeed a travesty.  They are just as much a club as anyone else on the list.

Protest registered.

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Tough one - I can see Kev's point, and I think the intent of the category was more your traditional running type club, but living with a Runclubber I can certainly attest that her motivations for running with the club and interactions with fellow Runclubbers are the same as they are for the Striders.  Heck, they even have their own singlets.

Maybe a 'training groups' category might fit the bill a bit better?

[Jogger]

The "private training groups operated by a single person" were allowed into the clubs category, maybe I am old-fashioned but I don't think of them as clubs. It's not to say there is anything wrong with them, and of course many people have been introduced to running through them. But so have gyms, and I would have excluded them. I guess that in any category you have to know what is in or out of the category.

I bet if we'd have had a "personal coaches" category Run Club would have wanted to go in both or would you be happy to be just in "personal coaches" ?

[freespiritfitness]

I'm not a coach I'm just a personal trainer who likes running.

Indeed the title of  bay run coach  was bestowed by an admiring moderator when I first posted under the title of....run club.

Sean Williams is a coach,a very good one, we are a  run club .

A miniscule percentage of the tens of thousands of dollars that I rake in each week does go towards promoting the club so that we can keep running.

Now it's true that the poor buggers had to organise their own uniforms and even the lollies are provided each week by the lovely Tiger Angel.

But I'm guessing that they wouldn't be motivated to do this had their experience of run club not been a positive one.

[Jogger]

Look, I have already gone against my natural instincts and left it in the vote. I feel like I am just getting beat up now.

quote:

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I nominated FreeSpiritFitness Run Club because it fulfils in both spirit and actuality everything that a 'good' club should. There is a tremendous sense of community there, evidenced by the number of activities outside of the two training nights that members choose to participate in.

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I have never said that there is anythiong wrong with your group, or others that are in a similar category. If you were rabid fitness first fans you can use the same argument (I have been a member of Fitness first and they are ok), it's not about how good they are, or how bad/ inappropriate other clubs are or about the money, it just didn't strike me that they were a club.

quote:

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I nominated the club early in the nominations process, so I guess if you had a problem with the nomination, or decided that a narrow definition of 'club' was what was going to be adopted, then it should have been raised earlier.

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Yes it could have, but I only just flicked through the many duplicate, triplicate, quadriplicte votes and weeded them out and the obvious donkeys (bondi icebergs, nipple clamps etc). I didn't take a lot of time to carefully review each item until yesterday.

quote:

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Lastly, Kevin, I nominated "FreeSpiritFitness Run Club" - and completely missed it in the voting section because you re-submitted it as 'Run Club'. It almost defeats the purpose of you allowing it back into the section, don't you think?

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Sorry. But once the vote is set it can't be changed. All I can do is apologise.

quote:

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I'm not a coach I'm just a personal trainer  

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In my mind, they are the same. I am just a simple runner.

[freespiritfitness]

Fair enough, the last thing I want is for anyone to feel beat up, least of all kev.

Unfortunately there as an inherent implication that if money changes hands the service or club is somehow less worthy. I have fought this particular bias before and will continue to do so as the need arises.

Thankyou for including our club in the nominations.

p.s I'm not sure how happy Sean Williams,Ken Green,Nic Bideau et al would be about being lumped in with personal trainers !

[FakePlasticTrees]

I'm going to have to agree with Kevin. I have nothing against Freespiritfitness's group and encourage people to get involved. I just don't think it's a "club". If it is what's to stop nominations for other "clubs" such as the Lane Cove River Rats, The Bay Boys, each and every individual Fitness First Boot Camp.

Oh quotes:
  

quote:

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...denying the club that I belong to...  

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quote:

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...the people that make up its membership.

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Does this group have membership? or is it the comaraderie from the group that makes it feel like a club?

[freespiritfitness]

I don't really understand any of that post.

Suffice to say that I believe we are a club because we encourage and support each other, have the occasional social event and run together just like the river rats, bay boys and many others who should also get a guernsey if they want.

Shitness First boot camps are not running groups they are general fitness classes and as such would not be classed as a running club, it's not  that complicated.

[Jogger]

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I'm not sure how happy Sean Williams,Ken Green,Nic Bideau et al would be about being lumped in with personal trainers !

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Surely your group is the same as theirs ? some of your runners are slower - just some mind you    ;)   and the training is slightly different, but I can't honestly see any other difference (although I have never having run with run club nor their groups). In fact this is the point: if Nic Bideau asked for his group to be in the club category I would have disallowed that too as I truly see them the same as run club. I was trying to be consistent.

I don't think its about the money. If freespiritfitness said "we will only allow beautiful young teenagers to join from now on" (note - specifically not a gender-specific statement) that's your decision as its YOUR group. But regular clubs can't do this as they have a membership that have a legal right to have a say on who runs the club and how.

fyi - the protest was from Pat Carroll's group which is in the same category.

However, what's done is done and I am sure we are still friends.

I was expecting more of an outcry about dropping all the "hjiacker" threads nominations   :)

[freespiritfitness]

What I meant was that those guys are level 1,2 or 3 running coaches and as such might resent being lumped together with regular personal trainers who have no specific running knowledge.

I think I'll stop now, if this keeps going I'm gonna to have to start putting the highly esteemed, Karl R. Popper  as my tag line.      ;)  

p.s run club is NOT a totalitarian state, any decisions that I make are in conjunction with other run clubbers. Indeed most of the good ideas come from  them not me!

[FakePlasticTrees]

quote:

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Originally posted by KevinTiller:
Next year, for items like "most inspirational", "best blog" etc we will ask for a reason for the nomination as well and set a limit on a max number of nominations eg 20. I suspect that people were self-nominating or just nominating their mates.

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If possible maybe setting up some kind of "seconding" system. So that each selection needs to have at least 2 nominees.

[Colin]

quote:

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Originally posted by freespiritfitness:
, if this keeps going I'm gonna to have to start putting that Karl R. Popper bastard as my tag line.      ;)    

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freespiritfitness, Karl Popper's legacy is not the disagreement of opinion at all, which is what's happenning here.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and disagreement with it does not prove that the opposite view is wrong.

I added the tag line, because though I believe in the above, it is the promotion of so called 'scientific fact' without evidence (as with the 'african genetics/running performance' thread), that I vehemently argue against.

For information on Popper look here.

"Only hypotheses capable of clashing with observation reports are allowed to count as scientific. "Gold is soluble in hydrochloric acid" is scientific (though false)"...

but ""Some homeopathic medicine does work" is, taken on its own, unscientific (though possibly true)".

"The first is scientific because we can eliminate it if it is false; the second is unscientific because even if it were false we could not get rid of it by confronting it with an observation report that contradicted it."--like the opinions in this thread.

Hope that explains the tag line.   :)  

So, no the Karl Popper tag line will not help you in this clash of opinions.

btw, Karl Popper is the late grandfather-in-law of a prominent CR. edit--he may not appreciate the 'bastard' description  ;)

[FakePlasticTrees]

quote:

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Originally posted by Colin:
..."Gold is soluble in hydrochloric acid" is scientific (though false)"...

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Ha, I read this as "God is soluble in hydrochloric acid" and thought that it didn't sound too scientific. You'd have to find out which God and then prove his/her existence, before trying to dissolve said deity in acid.

[lostboy]

quote:

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Originally posted by Colin:
[QUOTE]... Karl Popper's legacy is not the disagreement of opinion at all, which is what's happenning here.......

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Sorry  :rolleyes:  , is this the arguement department?  ;)

[Digger]

I'm not sure how this thread go around to this quote:

  

quote:

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Originally posted by Colin:
..."Gold is soluble in hydrochloric acid" is scientific (though false)"...  

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But this statement is not necessarily incorrect or false, because of the following:

  

quote:

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Aqua Regia


Aqua Regia is a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid. It can dissolve gold, which single acids alone cannot do. Here we see that each of the acids separately has no effect on the gold but a mixture of the two dramatically reacts with the gold. To three samples of gold are added (1) concentrated hydrochloric acid (2) concentrated hydrochloric and concentrated nitric acids and (3) concentrated nitric acid. The gold reacts only with the concentrated acid mixture which is referred to as aqua regia (royal water).

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If you want more information  click here
  :D

[Colin]

quote:

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Originally posted by Digger:
[QB] I'm not sure how this thread go around to this quote:

  [QUOTE]Originally posted by Colin:
..."Gold is soluble in hydrochloric acid" is scientific (though false)"...  

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Just explaining to freespirit that Popper's philosophy was that falsification tests scientific theory.

The statement is still incorrect and false (though scientific) because neat HCl is quite different to HCl/HNO3.

Enough of the hijack though.  :)