After Ironman Switzerland in 2009 I was presented with a prize at the annual prizegiving for being the ‘Fastest Finisher.’ At the time I wrote…
“Of the 52 Pirate finishers I finished 6 minutes ahead of the next placed Pirate - so was presented with a lovely wooden shield which I shall treasure for the next 12 months. I felt honoured to have won this - especially with some of the other names on the trophy and I had to make an acceptance speech when I was called up to collect it.”
‘Fastest Finisher 145’ Shield
So, 12 months is up and a couple of weeks ago I had to hand the shield back in readyness to be re-distributed at the prize-giving post Challenge Roth. Unfortunately I wasn’t the fastest finisher at Roth so the shield has gone to a new owner. I’ll hope to get it back in my possession again one day… ;)
You’ll see a photo of the shield here on the blog but I’m not going to explain what the strange engravings are beneath the names/races (oh, and the meaning of ‘145’ on the shield). To find out more I’d suggest trawling the forums at Runners World or coming along to the big pirate race in 2011 and asking someone.
In addition to getting the shield I am now slowly building up my pirate ‘ranking!’ This is a virtual hall of fame that was devised by Candy - one of the original pirates back in 2005. Back in December 2005 he wrote…
Obviously we need a hall of fame, and I was sufficiently bored on my long ride last saturday to come up with a pirate rank system based upon experience.
The Rank system. On a points basis, where only IM distance or longer counts for points. Its not a knitting club. 1 point per IM finish. 1 bonus point for doing the extra hard ones (norseman, lanzarote and [but only if you get in by the honourable route, qualification] hawaii). 2 points for double IM finish. 3 points for Triple, 5 points for Deca. 1 bonus point for every time you win a shield or set a record (above). 1 bonus point for becoming “reasonably competent” (i.e. the first time you crack 12 hours). 1 bonus point for becoming “outstanding” (i.e. the first time you crack 10 hours). -1 point for a DNF (its not a quitting club). Note that if you miss cut off but still finish the course (even if it takes 20 hours) then you still get the point.
There are a number of ‘ranks’ that you can get to over your Ironman career, which are as follows:
Ranks
-2 tritalker -1 plank 0 landlubber 1 scurvey dog 2 seaman 3 junior pirate 4 pirate 5 2nd mate 6 1st mate 7 commander 8 captain 9 admiral 10 admiral (2 parrots) 11 admiral (3 parrots) etc 15 pirate king blackbeard
So, two years into my Ironman career and I’m doing alright having got myself four points and now at ‘pirate’ status:
- Ironman Switzerland 2009 = 1 point
- Breaking 12 hours = 1 point
- Winning a shield = 1 point
- Challenge Roth 2010 = 1 point
This is all a bit of fun, nobody really knows how many points anyone else has, and nobody is keeping scores.