This past Monday we held contest to give away a beautiful Walz Cycling Cap to some lucky reader. The rules for this contest were different from any we’ve had before—to win the cap readers had to leave a comment telling me why they needed this cap. The contest ended at midnight on Friday, March 15, 2013.
After reviewing the nearly fifty comments that were left I have selected Jim as the winner (his comment was left under the name of bgddyjim). Jim lives in Michigan and runs the Fit Recovery blog. I always try to post a photo our contest winners—the photo above was taken by Jim’s wife after he completed the Dawn Farm Ride for Recovery 100k last April. If you haven’t read Jim’s winning entry yet, I’ll post it here for your enjoyment:
“My need for that cycling cap began a bit more than 42 years ago when I was born to the son and daughter of immigrants, parents who eventually sat me on the toilet sideways, by the way (!). You see, I was born with an amazing head of hair. When cut and well maintained, said hair is glorious, wavy and beautiful. Having this beautiful head of hair is however, also A CURSE! You see, and you might want to grab a box of tissues at this point, my amazingly glorious hair is more water repellant than a duck’s ass. When I ride my road bike sweat drips mercilessly into my eyes! To make this horror story complete, my local bike shop only carries cheap cotton cycling caps with the World Champion rainbow on them! Please give me a moment to compose myself, my tears are threatening to short-circuit my keyboard… OK, I’m back… In any event, if I were to win just this simple cycling cap and it worked to save my eyes while blistering about Michigan’s (your own HOME STATE, btw) roads, I might be able too, with YOUR HELP – for the first time in my short cycling career, get over my phobia of society putting a stigma on me if I buy a product online rather than exclusively from my LBS which is amplified by the fact that my grandparents were immigrants and my mom sat me on the toilet sideways! Think of the service you would be providing the good old US of A! You (and Walz) could be that guy! (Sniffle, sniff).”
Poor Jim! My heart was heavy and my eyes were misty as I read his tragic story. I wasn’t the only one who thought Jim should win the cap—several other bloggers even pleaded his case for him (something I had not anticipated when I announced the contest). However, I do need to make one correction in Jim’s entry: Michigan is not my home state—I am a refugee from Indiana, a place where I lived until I was 18 years of age (I would have left before then, but I didn’t know we were free to leave).