Too many medals

Remember the other day I said I was looking forward to cleaning on my summer break?  Well, the first thing I tackled was the closet in my dressing room.  If you remember from a previous post, my dressing room is were I have all my medal displays. You can see a picture of it HERE.

Just some of the virtual run medals I found.



Well anyway, while cleaning out the closet I came upon several medals.  These were a variety of medals from non-running events and virtual races.  To sum it up, they are all medals that I do not display on my medals racks.

You can for sure understand why I don't display the non- running medals, but I don' feel like I want to display the virtual run medals either (except for one that I will talk about later).  Virtual races can certainly be fun when done with a group or a running buddy.  My sister and I are ambassadors for Gone For a Run and have enjoyed helping promote their virtual runs and have some fun memories from our runs together.  It's fun to get a cool race shirt and a colorful bib to go do a run in. In essence, it's like a themed training run.  However, I feel odd presenting myself with a medal just because I did a training run.  They are cool medals but I don't think a "training run" deserves a medal. Besides, I already have enough medals from my "real races" and don't want to take up precious real-estate for the virtual race medals.


The only virtual race medal I display on my rack is my Boston Remembrance Run.  I did this run the summer of 2013. My sister ran the Boston Marathon that year and I felt like I wanted to do something to honor the runners and victims.  All the proceeds from the virtual race went to the bombing victims.  I actually put a lot of effort into doing the 26.2 miles and got a great medal that even had my name engraved on it. I display it not because what I have achieved, but for what it represents. I would feel bad hanging it inside the closet.

How often do you run virtual races and what do you do with those medals? I once heard about an organization that you can donate unwanted medals to and they will give them to a children's charity. Does anyone know anything about that? That might be a good thing for me to do with my extra medals.  -M

We will be linking up with the gals from TOTR.

37 comments:

  1. I wondered about that myself - if there was a charity to give medals - if you find out, please let me know.
    I actually have my virtual race medals separated myself. I actually have all my medals seperated. Like half marathons in one place - a group of medals from the same race together - my fun run medals together - my virtual race medals together. I'm really anal when it comes to certain things in life ;) haha

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  2. I did a virtual run for the wounded warrior project, so I display that one.

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  3. I just did my first virtual run, honestly, it was a little strange. it was only a 5k so no medal was involved but i do have a t-shirt. Not sure where I stand on them yet!

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  4. I completely understand why you display the Boston medal! I only ever ran one virtual race and opted not to receive a medal for a couple reasons. First of all, I don't even display mine, and second, I figured that would allow more of my registration fee go towards the charity. I don't know if many virtual races let you choose that or not as I only ran one.

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    1. I never heard of that before. I suspect most people do the virtual races for the medal as they are usually pretty uniquely themed!

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  5. I feel the same way about virtual medals - I did a run where you got a Hawaiian-themed medal, so of course I have that hanging up, and my husband and I did the Beat the Blerch virtual race because we couldn't do it in person, but I haven't done other virtual races because they're pretty expensive for, like you said, a training run.

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    1. I hear that Beat the Blerch is a pretty popular virtual race!

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  6. I believe the charity you're thinking of is Medals for Mettle. They'd happily accept your virtual race medals. I agree I don't have the same sense of "earning" my virtual medals. But I do them for good causes so it's all good.

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    1. Yes, I like when it is for a good cause. That way you get to donate and doing the run for the extra goodies is just a bonus. Thanks for mentioning the charity.

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  7. I have around 5 virtual medals and right now I have them together on a rack with my regular ones. Not sure they belong there but that's where they are! Cleaning always sounds like a great idea until you do it :)

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    1. If you have the room for them on your display, why not.

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  8. my current medal rack is super full and I need to hang up the extra ones I bought this weekend. I dont do many virtual races just because there are so many in person races for me to do! Along with that, i will do a virtual race if it represents a charity that is close to my heart

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    1. I agree with the charity part. I wish Guiding eyes for the blind (they raise guide dogs) would host a virtual race. I would definitely do that one!

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  9. I display my virtual race medals because I RACE my virtual races. I use them as an excuse to really push my pace and get some speed work in. Usually. Once in awhile I'll do a virtual as a training run just for the medal...and then the entire point IS the medal, so I like to display it! Usually because the only reason I signed up was that the medal was cute. I don't hang up my non-running medals, though.

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    1. I actually started out in that same mindset too. I suspect a lot of people sign up for virtual races because of the medal. I've done it before too!

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  10. I've never done a virtual run.

    The only medals I display are from my halfs. Every once in a blue moon I do a shorter race that gives out medals, but I just don't have the same attachment to them.

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  11. I second Marcia's note on Medals for Mettle, although I've heard they only accept medals above a certain race distance, with the ribbons cut off? I'm not sure. Definitely worth looking into, though! I've never done a virtual run, although I have been tempted to by some of the nicer bling a few have offered!

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    1. Wow, I didn't know Medals for mettle would be so picky..lol

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  12. I've only run a couple of virutal races and they were for charities. I understand what you mean about not feeling like you "earn" medals for the virtual races. I do think that Boston medal is pretty special and I can see why you want to display that one!

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  13. I feel the same way about those virtual run medals. I did all those Gone For A Run races last year because they fit in nicely with marathon training. But it just felt weird to get a medal for running around my neighborhood. I'm not going to do them again.

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    1. Yea, I will probably only do ones that support a charity if I do anymore.

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  14. I don't do virtual races because to me, it is not a race. Seems like the same way you feel about those races. We were offered the Gone for A Run ambassador role, but were not interested since I feel that it is just a training run. We both already have more medals than we know what to do with. However, I need to find the place where you can donate medals.

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    1. When we became GFAR ambassadors we actually got to review products, so that was fun. We didn't even know they did virtual races.

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  15. Awesome! It really admires! At present, i still lacks the Boston medal and i missed i. I also hope that will early reach it in the next time.

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  16. I've started sending all of my virtual medals to the little boy I was matched up with through the IRun4 organization. He loves getting them and his mom even got him a rack to display all of them along with the bibs.

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  17. I don't display my virtual race medals either. Right now they're all sitting in a drawer in my bedside table. I'm not sure what I'll do with them.

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  18. I completely agree about the virtual medals, which is why I've never done a virtual race. Because I feel like it's just a training run so why bother "registering" and paying for something I would be doing anyway? Unless it's for a really great cause like your Boston race.

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  19. I've only done one virtual run so far... I don't really see the point of virtual races (when you have to run completely by yourself) unless it's free or for a good cause. The Boston medal of course is different.

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  20. First let me say that I loved the pictures of your medal rack and pictures on the other post! Those are so precious! It made me want to print race pictures and display my medals!

    I haven't done any virtual races... just can't find one that I want to do.

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  21. I have heard that there are programs that give race medals to sick children. I think that is awesome! I really want to get a nice display for my medals but at the same time too cheap to pay a ton of money for one! I've only done a couple of virtual races but I do like the medals!

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  22. I actually don't do virtual runs because I don't want to pay extra for what would just be a training run with a medal.

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  23. Donate them to the special Olympics organization. They use them for their events the participants are beyond thrilled when they earn them in the races. If you've ever watched a special Olympic event you'd see how much joy they get in them.
    I haven't done a virtual race. But I probably wouldn't display them either, of course I dont display any medals short of a marathon with the exception of a few first place finisher medals I've gotten in shorter races.

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