Finisher medals for the Nelson Backyard Ultra
Thirty wooden rounds are sitting on our workbench in a red bag, waiting to become finisher medals for a local ultra. It's the second year we've engraved them.
Anonymous
3 min read
At the end of September a familiar email came back to life. The running club behind the Nelson Backyard Ultra wrote to ask if we could do the same again as last year: twenty "100km club" medals and ten "100 mile club" medals, with the runner silhouettes. Race day is Saturday, October 10.
The wooden rounds were dropped off the same afternoon. Then a short message: "On the bench in a red bag. Handful of extras there too for any mis-fires."
So that's what's on our bench this week.
How the race works
A backyard ultra is a strange and wonderful format. Runners have to beat the clock every hour, on the hour, and the race keeps going until only one person is left standing.
Starting with a clock
When the club first got in touch, in September last year, they had a logo in mind: a clock dissolving into splatter, a nod to the hourly deadline. It's a striking image, but it didn't translate to engraving.
On wood, the dark parts of a design are what the laser burns and the light parts are left as bare wood. A detailed image full of fine spatter and soft edges turns into a muddle at medal size. We tried a few simpler versions, and the club agreed: "it's a tough image for stuff like this."
After a test engrave they suggested something text-based in big, blocky letters, and we added a pair of runner silhouettes to give it some life. The race name arcs over the top, the runners sit on a line, and the distance is set big underneath.
Engraving the rounds
The club supplies the blanks: unfinished, pre-drilled wooden rounds. Our first test, of the clock version on an 11 cm round, took about eight minutes on the laser; a smaller version came in at around five. A smaller, simpler design means less laser time, and on a small round, bold shapes and big letters are what you can actually read.
For the run itself the final files lay the medals out in a grid, so several engrave in one go. If one misfires, there are spares in the red bag.
Back for a second year
There's something nice about a repeat order. The design is settled, the files are ready, and the job becomes about doing it well again rather than working it out from scratch. All thirty need to be ready by the 9th, the day before the race.
If your club, race or event needs something engraved, whether it's medals or a thank-you for the volunteers, get in touch.
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