Flashes of Panic

Anyone who has had a media credential at more than one NCAA event knows they can be counted on to hang the things on the flimsiest loop of slightly elastic string they can find: no custom lanyards here. This is not, on the face of it, a bad thing; after a while, the accumulation of credential lanyards begins to get out of hand, and this does not add to it.

However, while at the event, the silly string is a nuisance. It allows the credential to twist around until the string is trying to strangle the wearer, or blow up into one’s face. At an event like the outdoor championships, where a meet schedule is also hung on the string along with the credential itself, the string is barely capable of holding the mass.

So we improvise. Many people knot the string around a belt loop rather than hanging it from their neck. Others, like myself, anticipate the problem and bring another lanyard.

It needs to be a two-hook lanyard, since these are two-hole credentials. This is one of those situations where we size each other up, much like comparing the quality of race t-shirt on another runner. You bring the highest-powered event lanyard you own. (Or, as A wisely does, bring a plain solid-color one and dodge the comparison.) A major marathon lanyard is good, or an Olympic Trials. I recycle my IAAF lanyard from World Cross; it not only reflects my “sponsor” (though I’m not working for them here,) but also indicates that just because I’m not working for a print newspaper doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m watching.