• Nicknames in process •
[1½ MIN READ]
A point of anxiety after ZY passed into the great running beyond was that trail tags—nicknames—would stop being a thing. After all, Zen Yanni was the big cheese who did all the bestowing of them. Folks on Facebook and at his memorial celebration consistently commented about getting their tags from him (“The Person“ > “Remembrances“). More than one tag became such a part of a runner’s identity that other club members didn’t know real names.
But after the Zenster became less active on the running side of the club, other ways of getting a nickname developed. This was my experience after I emailed him to find out what it took to get one. When so many people seeming to have them, an insecure person like me felt like an outsider. Without being particularly well-known then, the response was that getting one could take time. Would you believe that starting to write for the (then named) Run Report and using your own nickname is a way both of getting known and of actually getting one? It worked for me.
In fact, other ways of acquiring tags have already been around for a while. Consider Just Gene who got his because that’s how he introduced himself (“No, not Eugene…”). And how about OKhen (By negotiation!)? And some really recent ones just appeared in the Newsletter (12/16/23, “News Items – Trail Tags”). ¶Space and reading time don’t permit me to detail other trail tags of the now and the yore, but as circumstances permit, I’ll work on populating the website with all the nauseating details (again, consider OKhen). Ultimately, tags are about adoption (“New Items – Nickname Morphing”; if no one uses them, they aren’t particularly effective. Well, SRC peeps, I charge you to start making them stick.
-CtCloser (Calvinthe) “Negative Split or Positive Splat” #dothedue
FINE PRINT ¶Text by Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ¶Cross-published: Facebook Shawmont Running Club (ZY Weekly Newsletter 1/13/24), Shawmont Running Club website, Ruminations by CtCloser. ¶This website posting: Rumination only with added caption.
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