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M

ore than a hundred people paid tribute Saturday morning to the mighty croaker with a running — and tossing — at the 2010 Croaker Relay. The first Croaker event of the day — a race that’s not quite a race and this year — features not only the passing of the many plywood fish batons, but also the passing of a torch.

Passing the croaker baton near the opened fire hydrant on Third Avenue.

Forty-eight teams with up to four contestants ran — or biked, or skateboarded or scootered — a one mile course through town, four times. The baton that teammates passed — a tropically painted plywood croaker — would come in to play even more after the four miles.

The team, “Sailors Not Runners” ran the race and afterward, crawled in a literal ‘catwalk’. From left, sisters Alexis and Nicole Edwards and sisters Kara and Emma Wheeler. Their effort concluded with a human slingshot.

As organizer Turtle Midyette reminded the contestants, it ultimately didn’t matter which team crossed the finish line first. In keeping with the Croaker Relay Tradition — which is either 13 or 14 years old, (Turtle was unsure) — the winner is determined in the contest that takes place after the running, in what’s come to be called, the Croaker Toss.

Turtle Midyette explains the rules and loopholes such as the shortcut runners could take down Mildred Street to halve the distance of the one mile lap.

Turtle told the crowd Saturday morning that he’d come up with this year’s croaker toss competition after “watching World Cup Soccer and NCAA shot putting competitions and reading a few fashion magazines.” The resulting challenge: contestants had to walk an imaginary model’s “catwalk” before tossing the plywood croaker. For the toss, they could use their heads or a part of the body above the waist, but, as with soccer, it was implied the could not use their hands. And points would be given for style.

Straighten those shoulders. Friends Sharon Forman and Jennifer Smart in step one of their team’s effort. Their husbands took part in step two, lifting and then tossing the croakers with their teeth.(PG-13 image after the jump on page 2.)

The teams came through with a variety of interpretations of super-model walk. Some sauntered, all hips forward and straight backs. One winning interpretation took the term “catwalk” literally: four teenage girls meowed as they crawled along the grass before using one of their members as a human sling-shot.

The “Sailors Not Runners” team Alexis and Nicole Edwards and Kara and Emma Wheeler implemented a human slingshot – Nicole – to toss their croaker.

Sharing first place honors were the team calling themselves the Not-So-Flying Hawaiians (aka the Duffie family) which had a winning dental toss.

The Not-So-Flyin’ Hawaiians prepare to toss.

Meanwhile, a visitor from Raleigh turned the catwalk in to a dog-walk. He put the croaker in the mouth of Mollie, a yellow Lab, led her by the leash past all of the other croakers on the ground and then gave the command to drop the plywood fish from her mouth. In the final round, Derek Murray and Mollie took third place.

As one plywood croaker went aloft, it was seen more easily against the backdrop of the balloon croaker on its way to the parade route.

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Posted Wednesday July 7, 2010 by Melinda Penkava

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