To the winner goes the banner!

Here it is, the soon-to-be much coveted Take the Lake X-TREME! winner's banner!

We have long promoted Take the Lake as not being a race, and insist that everyone who completes one of the four Personal Endurance Challenges is a winner.

But not so with TTL-X!, where participants attempt to complete all four PECs in a single day. At this event, the Saturday before Take the Lake, there is one winner, and the 

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rest are all just whiny, admiring wimps.

OK, wimps who have done something pretty darned impressive, so all finishers do get a handsome "trophy" displaying all three John A. McNeill Awards, the Lee J. Greer Award and a fifth TTL-X! Award.

But, to the winner goes the banner, and to make it all the more sweeter, all participants will sign this banner before the race, and one person will take it home with him, and he will forever bask in the glory of the "non-winners" who's names now adorn the wall of his living room, or garage, or man-cave, or closet...

A second banner will grace the walls of a local public place, so everyone who visits will gaze with admiration at the name of the winner, and the names of the others who wish they could be him.

By the way, we do mean "him," as no woman has yet registered for TTL-X!. Haven't had any young people yet, and by that we mean in their teens or twenties. Actually, most TTL-X! participants are in their late 40s and early 50s. Stop by Saturday and give the old men a cheer or two!

Hurricane Irene is heading toward the U.S., and they say it is expected to land right in the Carolinas, so we're considering postponing TTL-X! and are keeping in our thoughts all who lay victim to this storm.