The best thing about completing half marathons or farther? Medals. Medals are the greatest things on Earth. They are something you can wear around your neck that says, "hey, my hamstrings are sore right now." I have accumulated a lot of medals in my day, but even I am not as proud of my medals as my mom is of hers. That's right, I talked my mother (58 years old at the time) into walking a half marathon with me some years ago. She got through 10 miles just fine, then started Midwestern Whining. That's where someone says with a thick Wisconsin accent, "Clare, this isn't fun anymore," and "I'm just not having a good time." She did finish, though, and although back problems will prevent her from doing any more races, she has her finisher medal proudly displayed in her kitchen!
If you have only one or two finisher medals, you can just stick them wherever without thinking much about it. If you have amassed what can be called a "collection," you might want to consider other options for displaying them. Here are a few that I have either done, considered, or seen.
1) Shadow-box. I actually have one medal in a shadow-box, along with my bib. That is my 2012 Chicago Marathon medal, which was my PR marathon. I have it stationed right in front of my treadmill and I stare at the finish time that I wrote in there as I push myself to go faster. My husband has an identical shadow-box for his PR Ironman.
Besides our shadow-box medals, we have made fine use of...
2) Curtain rods. Yep. We have four curtain rods (two on top, and two on bottom) mounted on our wall in our Fitness Room - slash - den, above the couch. My husband's medals are on the top two rods, and mine are on the bottom. They are hung in chronological order and it is very easy to add more as they come along. They also make a satisfying tinkling sound if you run your hands through them. If you have a LOT of medals, this is the best way I have figured out to display them.
Another possibility is...
3) Peg board. You often see these boards with pegs hanging by people's doors for coats to be placed upon. They can also be used for medals. If you get a board with, say, four pegs, you can put several medals on each peg. This is a nice, tidy way to display your medals.
If you are feeling particularly sassy, you can do...
4) Letterman's jacket. This is more of a high schooler thing, but you can take medals off their ribbons and safety-pin them to a letter jacket. I knew a track star in high school whose jacket probably weighed as much as he did, and he could NOT sneak up on ANYONE.
These are all fabulous options for displaying your medals, and I'm sure you guys can think of more. Why display your medals? You earned them, so why not? And it is motivating to see a collection of medals grow and grow, or to remind yourself of your accomplishments.
No comments:
Post a Comment