A Dartmouth College student once took the video of a four-hour NFL playoff game and edited out all superfluous footage, leaving only the action. What was left was 13 minutes and 53 seconds of football -- a barebones expression of a sport, bereft of personality and character.

No huddles, no time-outs or coaching, no cheerleaders or face-painted fans, and no big-city skylines. There were only the players and that unforgiving patch of gridded green.

It was unwatchable.

It seems that we want personality. We want a sense of local flavor and craziness, and we want to know where we are in the world.

In looking back at the highlights of local recreation in 2011, the huge personality of our little corner of the world is apparent, and our local activities show a distinct sense of global consciousness.

Here are a few of the people and events who made their mark on the world from our humble stage:

To the ends of the world

During the summer of 2010, Brian Burnham and 13 members of his Carrboro Boy Scout Troop 845 set upon Cycle 20Ten, a 3,700-mile bicycle trip across the United States to benefit the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

This past summer, the troop followed up by going to the ends of the earth for a cancer cure, winning Burnham's boys' feat another title as my "Best Charity Event" for 2011.

This year, 21 members and leaders of Troop 845 hiked the 517-mile El Camino de Santiago trail through Spain to raise more money for Lineberger.

The hike ended with a cliffside, sunset picnic overlooking the Atlantic from Cabo Finisterre, once called the Land's End: "the end of the world."

"In Roman times, people used to go there to watch the ocean swallow the sun, because it was thought that this place was the end of the world," Brian Burnham said of the trip's epic ending.

En route, the crew of "pelegrinos" (pilgrims) climbed through the Pyrenees, visited hundreds of small Spanish villages, and weathered a testy trek across the barren Meseta region.

A website detailing the Troop's route and featuring trip photos is at www.elcamino2011.com.

Honorable mention goes to the fifth Annual Swim for Smiles - now the largest youth triathlon in the U.S. - held this past spring.

Smooth move

This year's winner for "Best Newcomer Award" actually goes to an old friend in a new location.

Fleet Feet Sports Carrboro listened to its own mantra: fitness through movement, and the Carrboro store relocated from its old location next to Carr Mill Mall to the former VisArt Video location next to Cat's Cradle.

"We'd grown, so we'd been looking at space issues for a while here," co-owner Brian White (with with Tricia) said of the former 2,400-square-foot store.

The new store now offers 5,100-square-feet, more than doubling the floor space for the Carrboro location.

Everything from the equipment-fitting process to demonstration space has improved at the new venue.

And the recent addition of a strip of actual running track surface on which customers can try out shoes is incomparable.

Honorable mention goes to what was actually the second staging of the "Bike Chapel Hill" group ride from the Wallace Parking Deck of Rosemary Street, but the first of such stature.

Best kept secret

The award for "Best Kept Secret" in local recreation goes to the Kultan Keihas project ( www.nationalscholastic.org/javclinic/). Thanks to a grant from the Chapel Hill-based National Scholastic Sports Federation (NSSF), this local program is seeking to groom elite young prospects for greatness on the Olympic and World Championship stage.

"There are no other programs like this (outside of Finland)," program director and longtime elite throwing coach Jeff Gorski said.

Six of the top returning U.S. boy and girl high school javelin throwers were invited to train locally in the program Oct. 20-23, and more training is being offered this week.

Honorable mention goes to Fifth Ape training ( www.fifth-ape.com) through which instructor and owner Colin Pistell is trying daily to inject the fun back into fitness through a return to natural movement training, including parkour, barefooting, and natural method.

Lifetime achievement

This year's "Lifetime Achievement Award" goes to the Godiva Summer Series track meets, annual rites of passage for runners, many of whom weren't born when the weekly meets began in the late 1970's.

Featuring runners of all ages, the longstanding Godiva series offers friendly competition each Wednesday evening on UNC's Belk Track.

"It's open to everyone," Godiva Summer Series meet director Charles Alden said. "You don't have to be a member, and you don't have to pay."

Founded in 1975, Godiva Track Club has over hundreds of members of all ages and abilities, and welcomes new members. The series is just one of the training resources offered by Godiva ( www.carolinagodiva.org/).

Best ensemble performance

The "Best Team Performance" designation goes to Ultimate (Frisbee) team "One Huck Wonders," a Triangle-based squad featuring numerous Chapel Hill athletes who soared to an Under-16 Youth Club Championship (YCC) in dramatic fashion at a national tournament held Aug. 13-14 in Blaine, Minn.

In the final game, the U16 One Huck Wonders found themselves pitted against a Seattle team they'd narrowly defeated the previous day.

Just when things looked bleak for the locals, sideline support arrived from the U19 squad who'd also made the trip and who showed up with big numbers to help spur their younger counterparts to a one-point triumph.

Best individual performance

This year's "Best Individual Performance" distinction goes to Emily Goldstein, who, at age 14, qualified to compete at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show last February in New York City.

It was the first foray for the young handler not only in the Juniors division but also in the elite Breed Ring.

In addition to showing her Lochnaw beagle in the Juniors division, Goldstein handled the Belgium Malinois "Quinn" in the Breed Ring alongside adult, professional handlers.

The East Chapel Hill High student has been a dog lover since the age of 7 and has been showing since the age of 9.

Event of the year

The "Event of the Year" for 2011 is the Cardinal Track Club's Thanksgiving morning rite of running passage--the "Double B" Gallop and Gorge 8K road race in Carrboro -- which has strung together years of consecutive PR's (personal records) in terms of turnout. The quaint, hometown race is now bigger, in itself, than many hometowns.

"This year, total registrants were 1,464: a new record," said Cardinal co-founder Dick Forbis, who now coordinates Cardinal Timing Services.

"And there are zip codes from all around the country," Forbis added, "from Oregon, from New Hampshire..." In all, 22 US states were represented.

The race features the "Double B" homage to Cardinal co-founder (with Forbis) Bobby "Double B" Biles, who now resides in Fort Collins, Colorado.

With large race crowds comes unprecedented charity to designated 2011 Community Partners who see a share of proceeds from Cardinal races.