1.The first and most obvious way to commemorate a race is to have your medal engraved.
Lasting Commemoratives is the company that does it at Disney Races and they have a tent set up after the finish line. I have never done this but my friend Heather has so the information here is from her. It's $20 to get the engraving done and they prefer cash (but may accept credit cards too).
You can actually pre-pay at the expo if you don't want to carry cash on you during the race. They will actually engrave any medals not just the Disney ones. So if you have medals from other races that you wish you would have got engraved, you can bring them here and they'll do it! When you get to the tent you will fill out a form with your name and bib number. It gets put in a line and there is someone there with a computer and engraver that does it right there. The wait is usually 5-15 minutes depending on how many people are in front of you in line.
If you miss the engraving tent at the race or change your mind about the engraving on the days following the race don't worry. There are still a few places in the world you can get your medal engraved.
2. Arribas Brothers in Downtown Disney is a crystal gift/jewelry shop and has an artist on hand that will engrave your medal. Ironically enough I wanted to get a necklace engraved there and they wouldn't do that.
3. Disney's Wonderful World of Memories at Downtown Disney will also do engraving on medals. This one actually surprised me. I knew they embroidered Mickey ears but didn't know about the medals until the cast member had told me.
So what other things can you personalize?
What about getting your race jacket embroidered? I did that with a run Disney jacket I bought earlier this year. I wasn't crazy about the "official" marathon jacket so I just bought a run Disney jacket and had WDW Marathon embroidered on it.
4. At Disney you can get race jackets (and other items) embroidered at Adrian and Edith's Head to Toe shop at Hollywood Studios. You can even bring in non-Disney items and they will embroider them too. I hear it is a pretty reasonable price at around $10 an item. You can get things engraved here too!
5. Getting Christmas ornaments personalized with a race and date seems to be a popular thing to do. When we were at Disney for marathon weekend we saw the artists painting several Dopey Challenge ornaments. The cost for personalizing was about $12 plus the cost of the ornament.
Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe at Magic Kingdom and Disney's Days of Christmas in Downtown Disney both personalize ornaments. Do this earlier in the day in case it takes a few hours to complete. Know that during a race weekend it may even take a day or two.
6. Glaskunst in Germany ( in Epcot) is an outdoor store that sells glass items that you can get engraved. How cool would it be to get a personalized wine glass with your name, race and a PR? Hmm, I think I might do this if I ever PR at Wine n Dine! They do beer steins too!
7. If you missed getting a T-shirt at the race expo, you can design your own. There is a Design a Tee in Downtown Disney that allows you to choose from hundreds of Disney images and then you can add your own words to it. I'm thinking this might be a great way to create your own unique "I Did It" shirt!
8. Also at Arribas Brothers you can get a picture frame engraved with the name of your race and date on it ( or anything that you want engraved on it of course).
Of course there are other places around the "world" to get cool personalized items to commemorate your race but these are just the ones that we were able to think of right away.
What is the most unique thing that you've done to commemorate a race?
I've never thought to have anything ebroidered before, fun idea!
ReplyDeleteI never did either until I decided that I disliked the "official" marathon Jacket at Disney this year.
DeleteI'm really surprised at how reasonable it is to get that stuff done! I would have thought it would cost more, especially at Disney. Your blog always makes me want to go back!! I have tentative plans to run Wine & Dine for my 30th birthday celebration ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I thought the embroidery would be more. The ornament painting can get expensive depending on which one you choose.
DeleteWe haven't ever had anything for a race personalized, but I know many people that have. We've gone back and forth on getting personalized Christmas ornaments for our Disney races, but haven't ever been able to find the "right" ornament. We might try again when we're there at the end of March/beginning of April since the merchandise seems to always be changing. It also won't be a race weekend of Christmas season, so that might make it easier to have personalized ornaments made.
ReplyDeleteWe were looking for just solid colored Mickey head ornaments to get personalized when we were there last month and they only had two solid colors: purple and green. I don't know if they planned to have those colors on hand because of the Dopey Challenge or what but neither of those were the color we wanted and all the other Mickey head ornaments like that already had designs on them. Hopefully we will be able to find something during this trip.
DeleteLove the idea of getting a wine glass engraved! And I would love an embroidered jacket. No idea they would engrave non-Disney items!! Great post!
ReplyDeleteThey sure do. I guess they don't care what it is, as long as they get their money.
DeleteDesigning your own t-shirt would be fun. I love some designs but the shirt may not fit me properly. I could chose the color, design, and cut.
ReplyDeleteI just wish they had tech shirts there too!
DeleteThis is such a great post! I've never got anything extra at the runDisney expos because most of them are gone by the time I get there.
ReplyDeleteYea, after running several Disney race all the expo stuff is kind of the same anyway.
DeleteI used to have stuff monogrammed all the time, but not so much in recent years. When Christine was swimming, I got all her medals engraved with time, event, date etc on the back. I have never done that with my race medals, but usually have a piece of paper attached to the non Disney age group medals so I know which race they represent!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you will want to get your Boston medal engraved, or perhaps your name on your marathon jacket?
DeleteYou are just full of Disney wisdom!!!
ReplyDeleteWe try...lol
DeleteThis year at EPCOT in the art store near Spaceship Earth I spotted hand drawn pictures of the different marathon weekend mascots. You could get those personalized as well which I loved the idea of! They were quite backed up so you could order a picture and it would get mailed to you.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds neat. When you say race mascot, do you mean like Mickey ( Marathon), Donald (full), and Princesses?
DeleteI've never had anything embroidered before, but I like the idea! A couple of years ago a blogging friend of mine had her race shirt, jacket with her blog name put on it. I seriously had never thought about that idea before, I go back and forth on it:)
ReplyDeleteBut I did want to get a cute 50 states shirt I designed printed and have all my information on the back of it, so I can race in it in the future, and when I get to my last state I totally want a shirt that tells the world so:) I will be pinning this for future reference for sure:)
That's a great idea. I bet she was like a walking billboard!
DeleteWhat awesome ideas! I've had my medals engraved before but never considered the custom shirt or embroidery ideas! If you're getting your medal engraved at the tent after the race, I definitely recommend prepaying. The line was HUGE after PHM my first year and I probably saved about an hour's wait by prepaying! Great post and thanks for linking up with us today!!
ReplyDeleteYea, prepaying is a great idea. I'm glad they offer that.
DeleteGreat tips. Thanks guys.
ReplyDeleteThese are all great ideas! I've used a few of these but didn't know about the engraving! Love that idea!!
ReplyDeleteThese are all great ideas. I haven't done anything with my race stuff but my husband ordered a gorgeous plaque with my Boston Marathon pic, my name and finish time and it was the most thoughtful way to commemorate that race for me.
ReplyDeleteThat's great. I know my sister wants to do something special with her Boston and Big Sur medals but just hasn't decided on anything yet.
DeleteMy medical assistant totally surprised me and made a shadow box of my last marathon. It was an amazing keepsake and a great way to commemorate what was my best race ever!
ReplyDeleteYou have a very nice assistant!
DeleteGreat info, thank you! An engraved wine glass after W&D would be awesome!!
ReplyDeleteThe first year that I did princess in 2011, I designed my own long sleeved tee at that design a tee store. It was great because it was less expensive than official merchandise and I could pick a color I liked that wasn't offered at the expo.
It love to see your design!
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