The trophy was basically a serving platter made out of glass.
Prospect Park Track Club had won the 2018 NYRR Open Men B division. The five-mile Team Championships race had been the closest part of it. We beat the other club by 54 seconds that day, with ten runners scoring.
Six months later, we had to put on suits and collect the thing.
NYRR Club Night was at the Manhattan Center. PPTC had two tables of ten. The note said cocktail attire and suggested a pop of red for obvious reasons.
I replied that I was looking for a red top hat on Amazon.
I did not buy one.
The room was packed with New York runners wearing clothes I had never seen them wear at a race. There were little runner-shaped cardboard cutouts on the tables, a stage, photo booths and a lot of club colors. Our table sign just said PPTC in marker.
The trophy said “2018 First Place Open Men B Prospect Park Track Club.” It was round, thick and covered in raised glass stars. You needed two hands to carry it without looking nervous.
It belonged to a lot more than the ten names on one results sheet. The club had captains, workouts, race logistics, emails, volunteers and people trying to get each other to starting lines all year. A few days before Club Night, I had called into a captains meeting from Google Hangouts while the rest of the group met at Berg'n.
That was becoming a normal part of my week. I ran with the team, raced for the team and helped with the less glamorous parts between races.
The trophy was the fun part.
We passed it around, took bad selfies and tried to fit it into pictures without blocking somebody's face. One teammate held the glass plate. I leaned into the frame and smiled like we had personally won the Olympics.
It was only the B division. We were extremely pleased with it.