The Golden Shoe award was more like the Golden Pair of Shoes award this year. The committee chose to present the award to Rhonda Butler in appreciation of the thousands of hours she has put in helping out, and working with, race directors before, during, and after almost every race in Brevard. Rhonda has been the most significant point of contact for not only Space Coast Runners, but the area running in general. Not a day goes by when she isn’t called upon to help out a race director or runner. In addition, she does a lot of extra work helping out with the club’s newsletter and the River’s Edge Half Marathon and 5 Km. Her leadership and sense of responsibility has helped improve the quality of road racing in Brevard County making her an ideal recipient of this award.

There was a group of members (lead by Rhonda Butler) who felt that Marty Winkel should receive the Golden Shoe award. It was hoped that Marty could be chosen and awarded without his prior knowledge. This would prove difficult since Marty would be the one responsible for the logistics of this year’s award. An attempt was made to have the trophy shop replace the award for Rhonda with the award for Marty. The result was that Marty arrived with an award for Rhonda and Rhonda arrived with an award for Marty. Both are deserving of the recognition.   

Marty has made significant contributions to running and racing in Brevard County over the last several years. He is one of founders of the Titusville Runners Club, been a race director for many races, organized and directed fun runs and training runs, served as an officer for Space Coast Runners, written articles about Space Coast runners for Florida Running, and helped coach the Titusville soccer team.

This past year, Marty probably set a record by being director for four major races: The Space Coast 24/12 Run, The Great Outdoors 4 Mile Cross Country Race, The Playalinda Beach Road 5 Km, and the Indian River Festival 8-5 Km. A11 four races are unique to the area (only 24/12 hour race, only cross country, only point to point, and only 8 Km in Brevard County), and the Indian River Festival has been voted as one of the top 50 races in Florida by the readers of Florida Running. In addition to his efforts this year, Marty also managed to win his age group in the Orlando Track Shack Grand Prix series and completed 83 miles in the 24 hour run.

Congratulations and thank you Marty for all that you have done.