Most inventive idea of the month

It crossed my radar screen just this morning, when some guy was announcing stuff about the finish of the imminent 5K race I was ready to run.

He said that when we finished, we'd receive a page from a standard desk calendar.

"Write your name, age and time if you remember it on the piece of paper and turn it in."

Genius.

Because without any effort whatsover this low-rent race had solved the perennial problem of how to — quickly and definitively — make certain the finishers were noted in order along with their identities.

Bonus: they then used the calendar pages for their grab-bag prize lottery.

Why am I so impressed?

• Numbered popsicle sticks or tongue depressors to reflect the runner's finishing place overall are very difficult to write on when you're borderline hypoxic and sweating a bucket at the end of a race

• The calendar pages offer plenty of room and the giant numbers offer easy ordering for the race organizers — numbers [January] 1-31 are obvious and numbers 32 and on [February 1, et al] are easily placed because each page of the calendar notes its cumulative day of the year

If you're expecting more than 365 entrants then another approach would be better, true — but in this Podunk town there aren't all that many such events.