Wednesday, November 23, 2005

About those medals

I love getting medals. (Call me shallow or childish, I don't care). They are motivating to me. Maybe I finish at the back of the pack, but I still do the same course and get the same medal that the fourth place finisher gets! I write my race time on the ribbon and hang them up on the tie rack in the upstairs hallway. Most of these are for half marathons, starting in 2000, but there are eight marathons and a few triathlons in there, too, and my three President's Fitness Challenge medals. Every one reminds me of a demanding day - some of them fun, some of them not so fun, but every one where I pushed myself.

But I think it's time to find a slightly less cluttered method of displaying them, but that doesn't take too much time and effort. Ideas? If you've accumulated a bunch of medals, what do you do with them? (Don't tell me you throw them out, that horrifies me. Or worse, that you sell them on eBay). Should I sort them out by distance/type?

12 comments:

Phil said...

Wow! Very impressive.

MB said...

I have a related story. I just started doing races this year. My first races were short-ish running races in Central Park. No medals. Then I did a 10K where for the first time, I got a medal. I came home and proudly said to my husband, "Look at this!" He looked totally surprised, confused and said, "Did you . . .win?" It was priceless. I laughed for about 5 minutes.

Comm's said...

Maybe move them to another spot in the house but I like the way they are displayed already. Maybe if your trying to distinguish specific events you frame them seperately.

I have an area in my house that is dedicated to our bibs from importantr races or firsts that have been framed. I just have my medals in a bowl on my counter. i just got a refrigerator for my garage and now I am taking all the bibs I have collected and taping them to it. I always sign and date the front of my bibs so I can remember when I did them.

What a thought provoking post Nancy.

Born To Endure said...

WOW Nancy..that is very impressive. In Canada they rarely give medals at races. The only medals I have are ones that i've done in the U.S. except for IMCanada I got one there..:-))

:) said...

Wow, You rock Nancy! Be proud of your medals...I would be! I say get a huge bulletin board for your new remodeled storage room and put them and any other race memorabilia on it. Don't just put them away. That would be a shame.

First: Who in the hell would sell a finishers medal on ebay?

Second (and even worse in my opinion): Who would buy it???

Cliff said...

You rock girl....geez that's a lot of medals.. : )

Jeremy said...

I devise some sort of display case to put them in. Do a different case for each event type (Half marathon, Marathon, Sprint Tri, Oly Tri, Half IM, IM etc. etc.)

Then you fold the ribbon up behind the medal and set it in the display somehow.

I picture some sort of soft looking fabric as the backroung for mine.

Of course I need some medals first.

Steven said...

Very nice. I keep all of mine and have them on a rack similar to yours. But I need to enlarge it as they are getting to the point the last couple keep slipping off. But do keep them! Keep your bibs too! I tack all of mine to a wall at the office...like wallpaper. I get so many comments and conversations started by people checking out my wall.

PuddyRat said...

I have a collection of both medals and bibs as well. I haven't made up my mind what to do with them just yet. It didn't occur to me when I started this to put my times on anything. Heck, I didn't know I'd still be doing this after the first one. Here I am, though, getting ready to enter my fifth season and I'm still at it. Whodda thunk?

I vote you sort by date.

Granny said...

I'm impressed. They look like a rainbow. Happy Thanksgiving Nancy.

Dawn - Pink Chick Tris said...

Very pretty. Looks like enough to decorate your Christmas tree with. :-)

Nancy Toby said...

Dawn, that might be the best idea yet, since I don't own hardly any Christmas ornaments!!