Our club promoted the Scottish Athletics 5km road championship recently, at Silverknowes in Edinburgh. I was asked, “Why do you give out pineapples for prizes?”
Our small Sri Chinmoy club have been organising races in Edinburgh at Silverknowes and The Meadows for many years. Silverknowes Esplanade by the Firth of Forth is a flat riverside route much used by local runners of all abilities. Local club runners have also always supported our races well, regarding them as well organised and with a good field to help everyone try and run fast times.
Dealing with unforeseen circumstances
All runners know that for many reasons a race may not go totally to plan. The same is true sometimes of race organisers. Around 15 yrs ago, we had a 5k set up at Silverknowes. Planning was all going well but, long story short , come race day, medals for all finishers had arrived but due to those little gremlins called “unforeseen circumstances” the race trophies had not.
Rather than have an embarrassingly empty presentation table, I was despatched to a local emporium to source something. I was thinking chocolates as runners often do, then I found myself in the fruit aisle staring at water melons and pineapples .
I chose pineapples .
Later that evening, when I nervously explained the situation to assembled runners at the prize giving and revealed a table full of pineapples, there was applause and laughter at how the negative had ben turned into a positive .
The following year we decided to give pineapples AND trophies which went down well too.
What No Pineapples?
The next year we decided to ditch the pineapples. However the reaction from runners was “HEY! WHERE ARE THE PINEAPPLES?
We were never going to win that discussion, for after all, we organise races for the runners.
It is fair to say, the pineapples do bring a smile to peoples faces.
They even inspire artistic creations. 2022 women’s winner Annabel Simpson used her pineapple as the centre piece of a pineapple selfie.
Details of the Sri Chinmoy 5k at Silverknowes
Details of the Sri Chinmoy 5km race at Silverknowes can be found HERE
The date is usually last Friday in April or first Friday in May, which is confirmed around the end of the year.
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