I have earned myself many medals since I ran my first adult road race aged 22 in 2007, but I do have my favourites. Here are my favourite medals in no particular order with pictures and information about each medal. I also explain what the particular medals mean to me and why they are up there with my favourites. Some I like because I feel they look good and some because of what earning the finishers medal meant to me on a personal level. I hope you enjoy.
For me, to date, my London Marathon 2014 medal is by some way my favourite. It was my third London Marathon in a row and I got faster each year till I finally reached my personal goal of breaking the 3-hour marathon barrier.
Firstly, I think the medal looks unbelievable, it is so well made and is huge and weighs quite a bit. It has a map of part of the marathon route actually engraved on the medal, it really does look amazing in my opinion.
Aside from how glamorous the medal looks, there so much meaning behind what earning that medal meant to me. I ran my first sub 3-hour marathon, which I achieved in only my fifth marathon and an achievement which was my long term ambition in running, certainly over the last three years. Finishing the race in 2:57:29, I became a three time 'Good For Age' marathon runner and earned myself a PB (personal record) by just over a seven minutes.
The amount of effort I put into my training for this race and the fact I had a few minor injury niggles leading up to this race, I wasn't 100% confident I could run under 3 hours but after achieving my time after putting so much pressure on myself to do it, the feeling was unbelievable and one of the best feelings of happiness, contentment and achievement I've ever experienced. I had a lot of personal things pinned on reaching my goal and it felt like a personal weight off my shoulders, especially as I was on the verge of questioning my desire to want to push my body to its limits again if I had failed. Thankfully I performed the best I've ever performed.
RESULT
Time: 2:57:29 (PB)
Bragging Right: Top 3% of all finishers
This isn't a great medal to be fair, but I think as a clear budget made medal it is quite cool with the colour photo of a hand holding a branch or a bush which is based on the Olympic flame.
This was a charity race and it was a race I also won, much to my own surprise. I had been out drinking all night for one of my best mates birthdays and I woke up in the morning very blurry and with takeaway all over me but I brushed it off and got myself ready to run.
I started off at an average pace but a mile into this 5k I decided to run my heart out and put everything into it. I did and I managed to overtake everyone, winning the race and stupidly ducking under the finishers tape much to the amusement of the crowd. This race always lives in my memory and I am proud to have won.
RESULT
Time: 20:23 (First Time)
Bragging Right: Race Champion
These two medals are awesome in my opinion. They are both really heavy and they are both unique in their shapes, especially the 2012 medal. There is a funny story with why the 2013 medal looks a lot straighter than the 2012 medal. A Scottish politician designed the 2012 medal and apparently came into some criticism when the medal was released because some critics claimed it looked like the shape of a penis, much to the politician's embarrassment. I am not sure of his name and wouldn't reveal it anyway, but I am sure you can Google it yourself.
In terms of how these two marathons panned out for me personally, it is pretty mixed if I am being honest. I actually had bad and painful injuries for both races but I was so determined to run both events, injury wasn't going to stop me, even if it did cause me to be out of action for a couple of months after both events.
In 2012, it was my second marathon in just over a month, I had a calf tear to my left leg which I suffered during a football match and made worse after running the Leeds Half Marathon two weeks before. I was aiming to run under 3 hours and I felt I could have achieved it. I was on course to do so running the first half of the race in 1:25:00 but as the race went on my calf tore more and I was literally dragging my left leg across the finish line in a PB time of 3:04:56, a 22 minute PB, close to beating 3 hours but a lack of experience in pacing and the obvious fact I had a calf tear meant it was always going to be a struggle, however I was hugely proud of what I achieved that day and I showed my mental strength in finishing in such a fast time with such a painful injury.
In 2013, it was pretty much the same story going into the race. After running the London Marathon and Leeds Half Marathon the month before, I had developed a very painful overuse injury to my Achilles called Achilles Tendionapathy, it was so painful I felt like quitting several times during the race but I managed to use all my pain resistance and heart to finish in a respectable time of 3:18:00.
RESULTS
2012:
Time: 3:04:56 (PB)
Bragging Right: 189th position out of 8,000 runners & Good For Age qualification
2013: 3:18:06
Bragging Right: I didn't quit
These two medals I really like. Although both medals look the same except for one numbered digit on both of them, each medal has both a similar outcome and a different outcome.
In 2012, my first ever marathon was scheduled to be the Edinburgh Marathon after entering the race back in 2011. But with just two months notice, I was called upon to run the London Marathon for Macmillan Cancer Support through a charity place with my work Boots The Chemist.
I had a target to raise £2,000 in just two months, a target I managed to surpass with the help of my work colleagues and my good friends. We raised £2,134 in total and it was a proud moment. I ran the race and it was an experience I will never forget. You never forget your first marathon, especially if it is one of the biggest marathons in the world.
I had a few hiccups on the morning of the race as I actually turned up a little late after misjudging the train times so I started right at the back of the charity runners. I had a personal target of beating 3:30:00 and I beat my target time finishing in a time of 3:26:27, not knowing if I had beaten 3:30:00, it was a great feeling and one I will always remember. My sister Melanie and her boyfriend Dennis were cheering me on at the Grandstand Finish by Buckingham Palace after I managed to get them tickets to watch me finish.
In 2013, after having experienced two marathons, after training super hard and feeling the fittest I had ever felt before in my life, I was very confident I would break the sub 3-hour barrier. I agonisingly missed out by just 41 seconds. It was devastating after the amount of effort I put in and how much I had to push my body to come so close to reaching my goal.
Looking back, I probably went into the race a little over confident and I didn't respect the pacing of a marathon, I thought I could just run as fast as I could and it would be enough but that race taught me I needed to start working on pacing marathons with even splits, which led to my archiving my sub 3-hour goal a year later.
RESULTS
2012:
Time: 3:26:27 (FT)
Bragging Right: Completing my first marathon.
2013:
Time: 3:00:41 (PB)
Bragging Right: Becoming a Lucozade Top 10% athlete
Aside from thinking this medal looks quite tidy and I love the faint sky blue colour of the ribbon, this race meant a lot to me and at the time, I didn't realise what it would lead to.
Me and my two mates Jonny and Gaz decided all three of us would enter the Leeds Half Marathon 2007. We were all aged between 21 and 22. We raised some money for Yorkshire Cancer Research but the main reason we entered the race was to test ourselves physically by taking on this challenge.
Most people build their way up to running a half marathon but we jumped all the other distances to run the half marathon first. Personally I thoroughly enjoyed the race and the challenge where as I am not too surety friends did.
I decided to enter it again the year after and I have never looked back since. It is my favourite race, probably because it is my local city but also because it was my first ever road race. I have now ran this race seven years in a row and my long term goal is to run it for atleast 20 years in a row, I've even ran this race injured several times to keep this record up.
RESULT
Time: 1:41:56 (FT)
Bragging Right: Completed my first road race and beat my two friends.
This medal is one of my favourites because I ran my fastest ever Leeds Half Marathon. Despite suffering from IT Band pain in my knee, which I had suffered after walking the Yorkshire Three Peaks the week before, I battled through the pain to finish the race in a huge PB of 1:22:45 finishing in 35th position out of 5,209, something I will always be proud of and something I hope I can even improve on over the next few years, I am targeting running a half marathon in 1:20:00 in the next few years, providing I don't suffer any bad injuries.
RESULT
Time: 1:22:45 (PB)
Bragging Rights: 35th position out of 5,209 runners.
These two medals look very colourful and have a fresh more modern look to some of the older Leeds Half medals. But it is my milestone achievements which is the main factor as to why these two medals are favourites of mine.
In 2012 and 2013, despite suffering from respective calf and Achilles injuries, these two races I ran my first sub 1:30:00 Leeds Half Marathon finishing times, a barrier broken that boosted my confidence in this particular race. I first broke the 1:30:00 half marathon barrier at the Liversedge Half Marathon a couple of months before in a time of 1:24:15.
RESULT
2012:
Time: 1:27:34
Bragging Right: First sub 1:30:00 Leeds Half Marathon.
2013:
Time: 1:25:52
Bragging Right: 61st position out of 6,000 runners and battled through Achilles pain.
These two races were early on in my running hobby career but at the time I achieved times which were good considering I didn't do any training.
However it is the look of the medals which mean these are among my favourites. The 2009 medal is very unique and detailed with images of runners featuring on the face of the medal, the orange colour is cool too. The 2008 medal, although shaped the same and pretty plain looking, I think it is a tidy medal and has a professional type look to it. Both medals are quite heavy and well made, love them both.
RESULTS
2008:
Time: 1:42:22
Bragging Right: Ran on no sleep. Not much of a 'bragging right' to be fair but not sure anyone else that day ran it on no sleep straight from a party?
2009: 1:32:09 (PB)
Bragging Right: I ran a PB time.
This medal is one of my favourites because it was my first race outside of Leeds. I was a little nervous entering this race and I got to train to Bradford from Leeds early in the morning.
To this day I think it could have been the toughest half marathon I have ran, it was very hilly and for most of the race there were not many crowds cheering us on, so I had to use a lot of mental strength to keep my energy levels up. It is certainly on a par with the hilly Liversedge Half Marathon, so if you know that race you can imagine how tough it was.
RESULT
Time: 1:34:12
Bragging Right: 68th position out of 866 runners.
I remember visiting a neighbours house on my street as a kid, I was probably about 9 or 10 and the kid that lived there had a cabinet full of loads of trophies in his living room from disco dancing.
I remember his mum talking me and my sister through all the trophies and medals he had won from dancing competitions and I said one day I'll have a trophy cabinet full of sports trophies. After seeing the pride his mum had from all the trophies he had won and how proud he was of them, from that day it stuck in my mind and I always dreamed of one day having loads of trophies of my own.
After playing competitive sport (except two years when I quit sport ages 18 to 19) from the age of around 7 or 8 to now, less than four weeks away from my 30th birthday, I now have my own cabinet / shelves full of my own trophies and medals - a childhood memory and dream I always looked at with envy! I can now say that dream is compete, even if it is only a small thing, subconsciously I have set about achieving that little dream through and now I can show off my own silverware.
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