Medals piling up

Few Corrections here......I'm not a dude. The "dude" in my photo is Macca (AKA Chris MCormack), several-time Ironman world champion. He was giving out medals at a race I did in Indonesia. I'm the woman next to him! I'm also not in Saigon right now (home with parents in Idaho). And in Saigon, they celebrate Christmas too. Big Catholic population there, plus lots of people of every religion go in for the shopping, gifts, and tree thing. Tet is in mid-February this year. It's kind of a continuous holiday--most people put their stuff up before Christmas and then just leave it up till after Tet.

Anyhow, Merry Christmas!

I have been running since I was ten, so have countless of those medals. At this point, I only keep the ones that are really unique (some of the IM brand races have very cool ones) or meaningful because of something about the race. The others get "repurposed"--I'm a teacher and coach so sometimes I cover the back with a sticker and write in the name of the recipient and what it's for. Our league doesn't give medals so I give mine to kids and relays that place in the top three in the championships, and other team honors. There are also some charities that will take unwanted medals for similar "repurposing", if you run out of tree space!

LOL - I've also wondered which one Hot Runner was!

Haha, I wonder how many people make that mistake.

As for medals, I don’t have that many from triathlons and running so far (6) so I am keeping them but I still have the ones I received as a child/teenager for winning soccer cups or championships. This was in the days when only the winning team (possibly the runner up) received a medal, so they mean something to me.

Maybe I should change my pic to this one?? (Attempting to attach; please forgive if it does not or is enormous!)

Forget it--it was huge. Anyway, it was me finishing 70.3 Worlds in a very un-dude-like outfit (hot pink and black). I'm not a dude. I'm not Macca.



Edited by Hot Runner 2017-12-27 10:27 AM

I have a friend who ran very competitively for a while and had a lot of medals he no longer needed. He donated his to the Special Olympics and they repurposed them and gave them out to athletes in their local competitions.

 

I agree that it is silly.  I have leave with 3-4 metals from a single race some days (finisher metal, age group metal, overall metal, commemoration metal, etc.).  I think is is less tradition and more expectation.  The race director doesn't want all the on-line reviews to say this race was so cheap they didn't even give a finisher metal.  I think the same could go for tee shirts.  The last thing you need when you have 20+ race tee shirts overflowing our closet at home is another tee shirt.  I got a beanie cap at a Valentines race in place of a Tee shirt one year.  I was trilled.  One race gave out sports bags, etc.  I am fine with a no frills type race.  Or at least some alternative frills that I can use.  I have shoe boxes full of metals, but all I really want from the past 20 years of races are my time and ranks so I can see how I did along the way to get to where I am now.     

Edited by BlueBoy26 2017-12-27 10:14 PM

Don't throw them away, there is a charity that takes them and gives them to kids.

https://www.medals4mettle.org/donate/

I've heard of the medals for meddle thing. I thought about it but I think I'm too much of a degenerate freak for the little write up you're supposed to do. Mine would all be like "Well it was just an Olympic distance so I figured I could drink the day before. The boxing match was on at the Hooters across from my hotel so I stayed way later than I should have. Thank god that water was cold because I was not feeling too fine that morning. By the time the bike portion came around I had rallied pretty much back to even. I did ok, considering. Enjoy this medal, kid."

Edited by d.rock90 2017-12-28 7:57 PM

That's funny! I'm not sure I'd donate either if I had to write a story about how I got it--especially if I can't even remember. (That would be one reason to give away the medal!) Guess it's good I can donate "locally". I just put a sticker on the back and write on it for the kid. If they ask, I'll say it wasn't a special medal for me, and that I have a lot of them. That's always been enough explanation for them.

In fairness I only looked into it briefly a year or two ago but they said "If you would like to donate a marathon, half-marathon, or triathlon medal, please take a moment to fill out a Donation Form and tell us about yourself and where the medal is from to provide us and M4M recipients some background on you and your gift."

I could write some little fake thing I suppose. But setting myself up as an inspiration for children always felt like mockery of all that is good and true that would require retaliation from the universe.

We have two curtain rods on the wall in our workout space where we hang all the medals. The neighbor kid came over and noted that my wife has more medals than I do.... Thanks for pointing that out kid! :-)