Welcome to another edition of Tuesday Topics! Today we’re talking about race bling!
This week’s topic – What do you do with your race medals?
I’ll be the first to admit that I enjoy receiving race medals. Does that mean I need a medal for every race I run? Absolutely not. But I usually prefer to receive race medals for any distance of 10 miles and up. For me, each race medal tells a story or holds a memory.
For instance, whenever I have doubt about anything – something at work, training for a race, etc – I take a quick glimpse at my marathon medals and I’m reminded that I can absolutely do hard things! The pain that you feel during the last few miles of a marathon is something you don’t forget easily, lol. So if I can make it through that, multiple times, I can make it through anything.
I use the standard method to display my race medals – a medal hanger. I currently have 3 hangers (2 pictured below). I have a fourth one that I received for Christmas that I still need to put on the wall (whoops).
I keep the marathon medals on the hook to the far left.
I love the rack because my autographed photo of Meb hangs above it
One thing I still want to do is a shadowbox for my marathon medals. I have the custom marathon maps from RunInk, so I just need to buy the case to make my own shadowbox. I think I can purchase the items from Michael’s so I will do that once the outside world opens back up.
Tell me – What do you do with your race medals?
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I love the way you hang up your medals! It’s true, they do remind us of our accomplishments and boost our confidence when we need it most.
I keep them for a while – as long as I need them. And then I throw them away. After thanking them, of course – team Marie Kondo all the way! 😉
Definitely! They really remind me of all the crazy races I have done, lol
I’m not ashamed to admit that I love my race medals, too. I’m not a fan of a 5K medal (or even a 10K for that matter) unless it’s for an AG placement, though. I know that sounds snobby, but I just don’t think they’re necessary for the shorter distances. I do respect that a shorter distance doesn’t necessarily mean an “easy” race. I’ve run a couple of 1-milers that took several days to recover from LOL.
I never look for a medal for shorter distances, but I think they can be encouraging for new runners – like if it’s their first race, etc.
Mine are on a wooden dowel by my treadmill (and my autographed photo from Deena).
I pretty much only keep my half medals. I like a nice medal, but I’m not really very motivated by them — is that weird?
So cool that you have an autographed photo from Deena!
My medals are displayed on a very full medal rack! Like you, I keep my marathon medals on the left end. I bought a new medal rack this year–i had a Groupon–but sadly, I don’t think there are going to be a lot of new medals on it this year.
Same! I highly doubt I will have any medals to add to any racks this year. But that’s okay – it just means we race a lot next year lol.
I am ashamed to say, mine are in a box. Right now we just don’t have the space to put them up. I do open the box once in a while though and lovingly look at them 🙂
I hope that you will get to hang them up soon!
I used to hang on all medals on my dressing table but after 3 years of running that got really overloaded so I packed all of them away into a small gift box except for the seven Half Marathon medals and the races I’ve done this year. Planning on making a medal hanger (let me be honest: planning on getting hubby to make a medal hanger, LOL) so I can have them all out again. Like you, I love them, even the 5K ones, LOL!
I think homemade medal hangers are the best, but unfortunately I have no artistic skills, lol
I’m not a big fan of knick knacks, but I love my medals so much. I keep the really special ones on our Christmas stocking hooks on the fireplace in our family room and a few on my desk at work (which I brought home for shelter in place). But I’m running out of space so when racing returns to normal I will need to get a proper rack. I love your “always earned never given” rack the best.
Same! I don’t like clutter so I’m not one for knick knacks either but I love my race medals 🙂
I believe I got the “always earned never given” rack from Amazon.
We have a workout room in our basement and I have pretty much taken over the wall space with my race medals and marathon posters. I started with just a couple of generic tie racks from Bed Bath & Beyond, but I also have a few medal holders that I love. Right now I have them hung in chronological order, but I’d like to rearrange them by distance. Now is a good time to hang the one you received for Christmas!
I love that! If I had my own house I would definitely do that as well, but for now they medal anger take up retail space on the walls in my bedroom, lol.
I love my medals. I have saved every one of them, and they are all on display. Every medal has its own story and so they all have a place.
That’s exactly how I feel 🙂
I do also love to display my race medals. Just got a new one this week and plan to re organize up there.
I should be able to find the time to put up my new medal display that I got for Christmas, lol. Once that’s up, I think I’ll do some reorganizing too.
Very nice! I have a medal display on one of my walls and I just bought another one that you can actually sit on a table…they were pricey but they really make the medals stand out! I totally agree that every medal tells a story!
That display that can sit on a table sounds really cool!
I do love my medals – like you said each one holds a story. All of my medals on display on a couple of racks. My boys gave me a special frame/shadowbox for my Chicago medal – now that I’ve got some extra free time I really need to put it together!
I love that your boys gave you a special shadowbox for the Chicago Marathon medal!
Well mine are in a box. Sigh. I would love to hang them but just need the space to do so. Hopefully this year.
I hope you get to hang your medals up soon!