It’s a growing “want” in the running community to get the medals. When you’re a beginner runner, all you want to do is finish a race and eat all the food you can, guilt free. It already puts a smile on your face that you completed that half marathon and a race bib is good enough. Most people who run once or twice a year could care less about these medals.
Then the runner who has a race each month comes in. I speak to runners on a daily basis and it’s so funny that we search for 2 things before signing up for a race
- Distance
- Medal!! … 2.5 Challenge Medal?
We love having these things and we put it in our walls to drool all over them. As a runner, I’m literally looking at my medals as I type this. Beautiful. Work of art on my wall.
But why do we want it? Besides posting it and the design….
It comes down on an intimate level. It symbolizes, your success and your story in a bright and shiny way. Each medal has a soul that was created when you signed up to get it. The medal was already with you when you registered, just had to earn it. When I trained for SF Marathon, there was no way I had this medal in hand, I trained months for it. I sacrificed a lot of time and a few weekends away from friends to train.
Once it goes around your neck, it has bonded with you.
Nobody can have the medal, you can’t simply buy/sell it because it turns into a useless paperweight. Why would you even buy a medal that someone else earned?
Now, I’m very excited to be a part of the 408k Race Ambassador Team because they have some very nice medals! HAHA!
Check out Jason’s blog here runningmile.com
