Race loot, a year later

Last year I had a category win in the Trawsfynydd race. It is a charity race, and the prizes are donated by local businesses. The year before I had walked home with local honey. But this time I had spotted a £50 voucher for outdoor kit! That would come in handy. Nobody else had claimed it when my name was called, so I nabbed it. 

In the year that went by since I did not pass through Betws, where the shop is, very often, and the times I did I either forgot the voucher or had no time to stop. So in the end I banked it on the day of the next race along! The shop was on route. 

I knew one thing I definitely wanted to buy with it: a new flask for hiking. I missed the one that had given up the ghost. If I went out now, I tend to go with the whole collection of smaller flasks, and that is not very practical. And I had already seen on their website that they also did wide-necked flasks for hot meals. I'm sure that will sometimes come in handy! 

I added some little safety lights, great for making sure you can be seen from behind when you go for a run in the dark, and a little dry bag, to get to the amount of the voucher. The little lights will probably not come in handy for a few months, but that's OK! I'm sure the dry bag will see some action in summer. 

I know I've just blogged about getting rid of stuff, but that did not involve flasks! I can use an almost infinite number of flasks. And rear lights. I’m not feeling any clutter-anxiety with this loot. 

The bloke at the till had a bit of a problem with the voucher as it had a code, which was handwritten. It wasn't necessarily clear which letters were uppercase and which were lowercase. The software would only accept it if he got everything right! It took a while. And then I could go home with my treasure.

This might be the best prize I've ever won in a race! Which is a bit weird, given that this was only a category win, and I have managed everything up to gold in the past. But so be it! I will enjoy this for many years to come…