2013 Umstead Marathon Mascotology

Here we are again, only a few days away from the 2013 Umstead Marathon.

Beginners Guide
For those unfamiliar with the race, every year there is a different animal "mascot".
The mascot adorns the website, the shirts, and the finishers pint glasses for that year's race. Also, the top 15 male and female finishers receive a handmade wooden plaque in the shape of that animal.

The mascot is chosen by a bizarre and shadowy ritual known as the Umstead Conclave.  See here for details. The choice is kept in absolute secrecy until Friday, the day before race.

But we here at Running-Down are Umstead Mascotology experts and read the tell-tale signs to accurately predict what the mascot will be.

Decennial
Adding further excitement to this year's mascot is that this is the 10th anniversary of the race. Anonymous sources have hinted that it will be "something special", and that "We will never be able to guess". We shall see...

Here is the chronology of the mascots so far:

1. 2004 - Horse fly
2. 2005- Flying squirrel
3. 2006- Turtle
4. 2007- Fish
5. 2008- Turkey vulture
6. 2009- Frog
7. 2010- Hare
8. 2011 - Tick
9. 2012 - Bat
10. 2013 - ????

Track Record
Running-Down has been making the calls as to not only what the mascot will be, but also what it should be. We have accurately predicted the mascot 1 out of 3 times.
On the matter of what it should have been, we were right 100% of the time.

Year	Should have been	Prediction	Actual	Prognosticator
2010	Deer	Opossum (see post)	Hare	?
2011	Opossum	Deer (see post)	Tick	Josh
2012	Opossum	Bat (see post)	Bat	Running-Down!

The Rubric
This year I will be ranking the potential mascots along the according to the following categories:

• Presence:  How often is the animal seen in Umstead?
• Inevitability: Given what has come before, does this belong with the list?
• Decennialality: Does it celebrate the 10th anniversary?
• Cool Factor: How likely will it be for someone to come up to you and say "Cool Shirt!"
• Intangibles: Anything else

Each category will be ranked with a score of 1-10, and added up for a final score.


The Candidates
We took submissions from facebook, and here are the nominees.

Butterfly
Submitted By	Scott, et al.
Presence	Yes, quite a bit	7
Inevitability	Seems like this is way down the list of priority	2
Decennialality	Unless they did something with the wing pattern, not much	2
Cool Factor	"Come my lady. Come, come my lady. You're my butterfly. My sugar baby."	3
Intangibles	Scott saw one in Umstead this past weekend. A sign?	10
	Total Score	24
Odds	40-1

Great Blue Heron
Submitted By	Kristine Pryzgoda
Presence	In the lakes, sure.	8
Inevitability	Yes, but not for a while	5
Decenniality	No	0
Cool Factor	With the wings spread out, it wouldn't be too bad	5
Intangibles	I think it is too soon after the Turkey Vulture	10
	Total Score	28
Odds	50-1

Snake
Submitted By	Scott
Presence	Aaaa!! They are everywhere!!!	8
Inevitability	Yes, sooner or later. This one won't be a surprise at all	12
Decennialality	Hmmmm. Maybe they could hide the past mascots in the pattern on the scales?	3
Cool Factor	Absolutely	10
Intangibles	This is a safe choice by the conclave.	8
	Total Score	41
Odds	4-1

Decapus
Submitted By	Shannon, Josh
Presence	Um, no.	0
Inevitability	Not really	2
Decennialality	Totally	10
Cool Factor	Would make a cool shirt, but an awful plaque.	6
Intangibles	Yes, a ten tentacled cephalopod would be popular with the kids, but let's be adults here.	0
	Total Score	18
Odds	500-1

10 Point Buck
Submitted By	Heiko
Presence	Quick, name the last animal you've seen in Umstead. Yeah, that's right, a Deer.	15
Inevitability	Again, a certain faction of the conclave is adamantly against a Deer since it previously was the mascot of the Uwharrie Mountain Run. But COME ON that was years ago!	6
Decennialality	The 10-point Buck idea is brilliant, but maybe a little too subtle	8
Cool Factor	A deer isn't intimidating, but it is majestic	6
Intangibles	Plaque would be difficult to carve.	3
	Total Score	38
Odds	5-1

Swarm of 10 Horse Flies
Submitted By	Brian Tajlili
Presence	In the summer, they are omnipresent	10
Inevitability	They already did the Horse Fly in year one. Would they bring it back?	3
Decennialality	Absolutely. Ten Horse Flies is a great celebration, bringing back the original.	10
Cool Factor	One fly on a shirt is great. Ten flies and people will be keeping their distance from you.	3
Intangibles	There's already a horse fly on the back of every shirt. Maybe too many flies?	5
	Total Score	31
Odds	20-1

Unigon
Submitted By	Josh
Presence	No	0
Inevitability	No	0
Decenniality	No	0
Cool Factor	Someone got beat up a lot in high school	0
Intangibles	Ug	0
	Total Score	0
Odds	500000000-1

The Nine Part Decennial Hybrid Beast
Submitted By	Shannon
Presence	It may be lurking in deep in the forest...	3
Inevitability	It's either this year, or never	2
Decennialality	The ultimate 10 year mascot. A combination of all 9 past years.	20
Cool Factor	Disturbing? Yes! Cool? No.	2
Intangibles	Would be the worst plaque ever. It would be nothing but pipe cleaners	1
	Total Score	28
Odds	1000-1

Other submissions:

Owl - Iris Suttcliffe.

Coyote- Steph Jefferies. 

Dung Beetle - Debs Springer. 

Horse Manure - Jim Wei

Finally, the official Running-Down pick for 
the 2013 Umstead Marathon Mascot is... 

Drum roll, please...

Opossum
Submitted By	AC
Presence	Oh, yes. I saw this one perched in a tree just outside of Umstead last year. He told me things...	10
Inevitability	The Conclave cannot deny me forever	10
Decennialality	10 toes on the front feet. What could be more special for the 10th? NOTHING	10
Cool Factor	With snarling teeth? Oh yes. And that rat tail? Oh yeah. And just for Shannon, let's throw in glow in the dark eyes. Would be the best shirt, plaque, and glass ever.	10
Intangibles	I know they have been purposefully NOT picking the Opossum just to spite me. And they know that I know that. So that's why they think they can sneak it past me this year without me picking it. HA! But I know that they know that I know. That's how I know.	10
	Total Score	50
Odds	2-1