The Importance of Medals

In the beginning, when I was signing us up for races, Eric would always ask, is there a medal? I always thought that was such a silly question/requirement. “T-shirts are awesome, who wants a silly medal,” I thought. Well I completely understand why he was asking. Getting something at the finish makes you feel awesome! Sure you get a T-shirt at packet pick up and anybody can sign up and get a t-shirt. But a medal…that is reserved for people who actually finish the race.

Is there a medal?

The first thing I used to look at when deciding which races to sign up for was the course map and elevation. I hate hills and if the course was ridiculously hilly I didn’t sign up. Now the first thing I look at is if there is a finisher medal. So the thing I laughed at Eric about 6 months ago, I’m now obsessed with. I think we are spoiled with the Monster Series because every race has a medal and they are pretty awesome. See:

Polar Dash 5K 

 Get Lucky 7K

For the Turkey Trot race we got a lousy collapsible water bottle (No T-SHIRT!!), Reindeer Run was a nice long sleeve t-shirt, Frosty Foot a lame t-shirt, but it was their first year so I forgive them. I know we will get a medal for Goldy’s run in 12 days. I WANT MEDALS.

Getting an awesome finisher medal, was the only reason Eric said yes to the San Francisco 10K (which I discovered is a “trail run” not a “road run” so we get to run up stairs, on hiking paths and on the beach…eek!) I googled what last year’s medal looked like and it is cool, it has the Golden Gate Bridge on it.

Vacation Planning

So I have truly gone off the deep end because I now plan vacations around races in the area. I have a whole list of races I want to do and I’m trying to plan vacations around them. For instance, I found a really awesome Resolution 5k/10K in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve. How cool would that be? And guess what…there is a finisher medal. I mentioned it to my brother and he said he would probably join us too! So it looks like we might be ringing in 2015 in Vegas…again! :)

Speaking of 2015, my birthday next year is on a Sunday and there is a Half Marathon in San Diego that day…just saying.

Other races on my list, and it is short because I just started looking during my lunch, include:

• Oakley New York Mini 10K - Middle June
• TD Beach To Beacon 10k Road Race, Cape Elizabeth, ME - Early August
• Dodge Rock 'n' Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon - Late August
• Porter’s 10k or Big Cottonwood Half Marathon, Salt Lake City, UT - Early September
• Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas 10K - Middle November  
• Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Half Marathon - Early December

Of course I don't plan on doing all these in one year. I have about 5 years of vacations there. :)

Unfortunately there are no races in Denver, San Diego or Seattle when we are in town.

And #1 question I have now, “Is there a Medal?”