What a year! Maybe it’s this way every year but it seems like over the last (almost) 12 months we’ve seen humankind’s two sides more than ever. In a world frequently filled with grey, 2017 seemed to be the year of black and white. On a daily basis we were served up images that captured both the best and the worst of humanity.
We played witness to unspeakably cruelty like the mass shootings in Las Vegas (and Scottsdale and Sutherland Springs and Mapleton and Osceola and, and, and…) that have become all too common and we learned about alternative facts while we watched terrorists at work across the globe.
One is too many and we've had over 300 mass shootings in the U.S. this year
But! We also saw incredible acts of compassion and bravery. Want to know what the top hashtag on Instagram was in 2017? It was “Love”! While you may have had to look a bit harder to find them, the year had its fair share of positive moments.
Now this is a hash tag we can support #Love
Even in tragedy, we saw what Abraham Lincoln so eloquently called the better angels of our nature. After almost every attention grabbing image of an earthquake or a fire, you could find a picture of a first responder running toward the danger. For every one shooter, 10 law enforcement officials were on the scene putting their lives on the line.
And we even had an American Woman winning the New York Marathon! Now we know it’s not fair to speak about athletics in the same breath as first responders but there’s no denying that one can draw encouragement from witnessing an athlete giving it their all.
Janie Hayes at the end of a 4,200 mile self-supported bike race
At Coeur, we tend to view the glass as half full and consequently, our preference is to leave the dark stories to others and focus on the positives. Especially the positives that came out in the little corner of the world known as endurance sports.
So that’s why we’re thrilled to announce the first year of an awards program called the Heart and Courage Award. We want to highlight and celebrate individuals and performances that inspired you and others this year. So, if you know someone who went above and beyond in the field of endurance sports and did something that inspired you or others, we want to know.
Just click on the entry at the end of this post and tell us about yourself or a colleague or friend who did any or all of the following:
- Dug deep in their own race and accomplished something amazing
- Overcame an obstacle and achieved a personal goal
- Did something to inspire or encourage others
- Somehow helped grow and promote endurance sports
You can nominate yourself, a friend, or someone else you don't even know personally as long as they did something inspiring that is related to endurance sports. The nominee can be a runner, a cyclist, a swimmer, a triathlete, a coach, someone in the media or anyone tangentially related to endurance sports. They don't have to wear Coeur clothing or even be familiar with Coeur. They just need to be awesome in their own little way.
A team at Coeur will read the submissions and we’ll announce the winner by year end. Entries may be submitted until December 15, 2017. We’ll select at least three winners and they will receive the following:
- A $100 Coeur Sports Gift Card
- Some free Coeur Gear
- A donation to the charity of their choice from Coeur
Again, there are no restrictions on who can enter or be nominated (men, women, pets all ok) other than that they had some relationship to endurance sports.
The entry form is embedded below (just click "enter" toward the upper left and fill out the form & submit). Thank you all so much for being so inspiring and for encouraging others throughout the year!