One of the many fun things about randonneuring is that you can get some really neat shiny medals and trinkets as hard evidence of your suffering. It sort of reminds me of the merit badges I got when I was a Boy Scout except that there was usually far less suffering involved then. Well, actually I never really earned many merit badges because I discovered girls about the same time I got into Boy Scouts and quickly lost interest in knot tying, canoeing and coin collecting.
Anyway, it would seem I'm a better Randonneur than I ever was a Boy Scout (which isn't saying much). After signing up for the Golden Gate 1000 earlier this spring, I realized that if I finish it I will have qualified for the RUSA Cup award. The RUSA cup is earned by essentially doing one of just about every type of event that you can do as a Randonneur in the USA. To qualify you need to do the following within a two year period:
- 100k populaire
- 200k, 300k, 400k, 600k and 1000k brevets
- team event (Fleche or Dart)
- 1200k Grand Randonnée
- other calendared events adding up to at least 5000k
I wasn't really going after the award but I managed to do all that over the past two years, so for my efforts (and $25 plus shipping and handling) I get the shiny mug pictured above with my name engraved on it. It's not exactly the Eagle Scout of Randonneuring, but then you can't drink beer out of an Eagle Scout medal, can you?
Congratulations!
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