Dale Yee's winning design features the City of Surrey logo accompanied by pine trees and a lake, both representative of Green Timbers Park, which is a part of the marathon route.
Photograph by: submitted , for Surrey NOW
SURREY - When Dale Yee, a truck driver from Surrey, submitted his medal design for the Surrey International World Music Marathon he never would have guessed his would be chosen for the inaugural event.
"I didn't imagine much in terms of "winning," I just thought I'd draw a design. When the design was finished I thought I had a pretty clean and communicative concept that represented the city, the marathon and the international music theme so I decided to submit it," said Yee.
"I knew it looked nice and clean, but who knows what other ideas other people had that were also submitted, I'm sure there were a quite a few good ones."
The marathon is being held in Surrey on Sept. 28 to 30 and will feature a full and half marathon, a 5K concert run - which will feature a lineup of culturally diverse bands, as well as a fun run for kids.
Yee is running in the marathon, a decision he made after seeing advertisements for the event.
"I just saw it [the marathon] advertised and I thought, well, I'll give it a shot," he said. "And that just meant now I'm committed to the training."
When organizers put out a call to the public in April to help design the medals to be award to those who finish the full and half marathons, they were immediately impressed with the number of entries, as well as the quality of the designs.
Design entries came in from professionals, amateur artists as well as high school graphic design students.
Yee discovered the medal design contest through the marathon website. Ironically, he decided to visit the webpage to see if there were any images of the medal.
"I thought what the heck, I'll put out a sketch and see how it goes," said Yee about his decision to enter the contest.
His winning design features the City of Surrey logo accompanied by pine trees and a lake, both representative of Green Timbers Park, which is a part of the marathon route.
The middle of the medal features the words "2012 Finisher," while the top of the medal says "Surrey International Marathon."
The bottom of the medal features a musical staff and notes, symbolic of the musical aspect of the marathon.
"Dale really captured the spirit of the event, as well as the spirit of the city," said Laura Ballance, volunteer spokesperson for the marathon.
"His entry will be one people keep forever, being the inaugural event."
