The Medal Count

emerald007

Runners collect medals over their lifetime ( I don't care where they were earned, Olympics, nationals, community games, local egg and spoon race) but how many do you have?. The sub question is - what is your favorite medal and why.

I personally like keeping them and hang them in various place, until the nail holding them breaks and they come crashing down. I'm kick the game off with 17, but this number will increase once I count the big stash I still have at the parental home this weekend.

Pisco Sour

I think I have 7:

- West Leinster Schools Inter Boys 2000m Walk Bronze - 2000
- West Leinster Schools Inter Boys 2000m Walk Gold - 2001
- BUPA Great Ireland Run 10k - 2008
- BUPA Great Ireland Run 10k - 2009
- Wexford Half Marathon - 2009
- Crookstown Motorway Run 10k - 2009
- Rotterdam Marathon - 2010

Dont think theres any more. I wish they would give out medal for Triathlons!

My most valued is Rotterdam definetely because it was the one I put the most training into and was without doubt the most challenging race I've ever done.

emerald007

ping moderator - can we get this moved to the main forum? please

hunnymonster

04072511 wrote: »

I wish they would give out medal for Triathlons!

Ironman do :-)

Mine are all in a box and they're a bit like old photos to me. They come out every so often. There are some great memories in that box. Two are particularly special. The winners medal from the Arctic circle marathon. It's wooden and carved locally by a finnish shaman. The other is the Connemara 100 medal from last year. Not many weekends where you meet special people like we did that weekend.

RubyK

I have a box of medals & trophies in my parents house, from my school going days. My favourite is one of the community games one.

A close second is the chocolate one we got after the Dunhill challenge. It was delish

TheRoadRunner

emerald007 wrote: »

Runners collect medals over their lifetime ( I don't care where they were earned, Olympics, nationals, community games, local egg and spoon race) but how many do you have?. The sub question is - what is your favorite medal and why.

Are we talking about medals that are given out to all finishers or medals that are given out for a top 3 individual/team finish ?

I have a few marathon medals and while they are nice momentos I wouldn't count them as medals won, if you catch my drift.

Krusty_Clown

I don't put a lot of value on the medals, but the most 'special' would be my 2:21 finish in the Wexford Half marathon last year. I can't look at the medal. I abhor it. But it serves as a constant reminder that if I do stupid things, I can end up injured and have a long walk to the finish line. It's a negative positive reminder.

robinph

Most of us don't come in 1st, 2nd or 3rd though.

I've got 5 I think on where I have them hanging at the moment, and off those I think I value my efforts more for the DCM'08 one as that being my first half decent attempt at a marathon. The best actual medal is a big blue glass one that I have from Bristol Half from maybe 15'ish years ago, but I've no idea where that is at the moment or the London Marathon one I have either from many years ago.

Gringo78

I don't know where all the 'participant' medals I have are gone (some of them could already be in a rubbish dump). I keep a medal from my grandfather though, Irish Mile championship winner in the 40's. I'd love to win a medal someday that I could proudly pass on to my grandson (or granddaughter)...I'm not sure I ever will though.

So the medal count will remain at 1 for the foreseeable future with no medals of my own.

TheRoadRunner

robinph wrote: »

Most of us don't come in 1st, 2nd or 3rd though.

I know, don't get many top 3 finishes myself anymore either.

I generally don't put much value on a medal where everybody who ran gets one. Having said that I quite like my medal from Boston.

My favourite medal is the BLOE national track medal I won. I skipped a family holiday for it and ran a race that I still replay in my head to this day.

To go back to the original question, I don't know what my medal count is.

MadHatter

I have a nice little collection form my track and field days when I was in my early teens. Pride of place is my NACAI All-Ireland gold medal for under-14 discus. Can't see my adding to the collection anytime soon though.

For years the medals were stored in a plastic ferrero rocher box in my parents house. About six months ago my daughter liberated them after she took a fancy to the jingly-jangly sounds of several medals hanging round her neck. Now she regularly takes them out of the box and "awards" them to myself and my wife (and herself of course!) - the reason for awarding the medal is generally unclear and unimportant. However, at a recent duathlon in the Pheonix Park, my wife and daughter were waiting at the finish line to congratulate me, at which point my daughter produced a medal from her pocket (gold, no less) and insisted she put it round my neck. I managed to decline the offer without causing too much offence and thus total mortification was narrowly avoided.

dna_leri

I have an old biscuit box with 3 layers (for gold, silver and bronze) that mostly date back to the 80's, plus a few I added in recent years as a vet.
When I was 13, I won a gold medal in the county finals of the community games long jump. It still takes pride of place at the top of the box, because its so big and shiny, but also because it taught me that if I trained hard for something, I could achieve it.
For months before, every day after school I jumped into a sand pit that my father made for me at the bottom of our garden. I got books from the library and read about hitch-kicks and hang techniques, and dreamed about Bob Beamon. After I won, I was an athlete.

token56

The only medals I have are from club and schools county championships as a kids I think, possibly one or two junior ones, can't remember. I have them all stored in a tin box somewhere. I also have one small trophy I got for winning the junior section of a 5K race. Its quite a poor quality trophy but is still my most valued piece as I beat my cousin in a sprint finish to win it, and its the only time I've ever beat him in a race. But he hasn't got a trophy for his wins. It still riles him up.

emerald007

I think we need to introduce the "photograph of your favourite medal" aspect to the this thread.

Mick Rice

For a long time I wanted to do the London to Brighton ultra and then, in 2005, I took the jump and ran it. Although I didn't know it at the time it was the last time that the race would be run. It was my first longer ultra and I loved every minute of the experience. I lost a few places late in the day but was very happy to finish in 10th in a slow time. When I crossed the line they were rooting around in a box for a medal. They had two kinds, one was the sort they'd used for years (small shiny and silver) but they didn't have many left, and they also had larger more modern looking ones. Every fibre of my broken body wanted the older smaller one and thankfully the person giving them out gave me one. I was happy.

I have an M40 half marathon bronze medal from Balybofey last year but I don't like it nearly as much. Mind you, both are in a box in the back room.

shels4ever

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Are we talking about medals that are given out to all finishers or medals that are given out for a top 3 individual/team finish ?

I have a few marathon medals and while they are nice momentos I wouldn't count them as medals won, if you catch my drift.

Your missing one dog bowl too

shels4ever

I dont have any anymore, Well I do have my chicago marathon one from 99 , belfast from last year might be in a box of toys or in the bin at this stage.
In my parents hows I had a box with medals from schools, XC and the north dublin XC gold .

Had aa few of nation judo golds and silvers , bronze that should still be there but may have been binned too.

TheRoadRunner

shels4ever wrote: »

Your missing one dog bowl too

ah yes the dog bowl, pride of place on a shelf behind the radio in the kitchen!

gerard65

I've only won about 6 medals but the one I cherish is an U12 Dublin XC bronze from 1977. I'll never forget that Sunday evening, I was so proud.

Pherekydes

robinph wrote: »

Most of us don't come in 1st, 2nd or 3rd though.

That's why they give medals for the first 3!

The last medal I 'won' was for finishing the Dublin Port Tunnel run. I finished about 9500th out of 10000, approx, in 73:30. Hey, I deserve that medal! I also have loads of medals for running the Streets of Dublin series over the years, but I don't count them as medals won. I have won medals and plaques, but I don't know where they are now.

I was twice 800m champion where I worked, (yeah, we had a Track and Field Championships every year!), but the first medal I won was in the first organised race I ran back in 1976 in a xc race in the PP. Our school won the team prize and I got team gold, but I didn't even know I was a team scorer! The teacher in charge gave me the medal in class a few days later. I was stunned. Later that same year my class won the senior school 4x100m, even though we were only 3rd years (we trounced the 5th years!-I mean by 15m, at least), so my first two medals were team medals, one at xc and one in a sprint relay.

tl;dr

My kids do Irish dancing and the house is full of medals. Every drawer, biscuit tin and box is full of them. Plus those cheap tacky plastic cups and trophies. But there is one I'm very proud of: it's my son's All-Ireland winning medal. He's quit ID and is now preparing to take on the likes of Dayron Robles and Liu Xiang!

Stupid_Private

emerald007 wrote: »

I think we need to introduce the "photograph of your favourite medal" aspect to the this thread.

I'll get that ball rolling so...

This year's cross country count. All team or county medals, zero individual. Before this my count was zero.

robinph

...and the muddy shoe that they were won with, I like it.

myflipflops

Gold from the Irish Schools track champs as a senior probably my favorite.

It was a big deal to me at the time, still a great memory crossing the line.

Pisco Sour

Can we count medals won on various Playstation, Nintento and/or other video game consoles..?

Brianderunner

I have a load of bronze medals from all ireland relays for both colleges and clubs. Also a few golds from provincials and county individuals along with 3 marathon medals. The time for winning medals is definitely in your teens, they are few and far between after that.

emerald007

emerald007 wrote: »

We don't care where they were earned

Edible medals count, only so long as they are not eaten.

The second best thing about a medal is the ribbon.

BeepBeep67

emerald007 wrote: »

I think we need to introduce the "photograph of your favourite medal" aspect to the this thread.

I have quite a few for county cross country and track I think I was undefeated from U/15 to U/17, quite a few team Leinster and Eastern Region also - the pic below is my fav, 3rd in the Leinster U/17 3000m, after finishing 4th the previous 2 years, 9:09 on the cinder track in Carlow.

shotgunmcos

Teens
Schools Javelin, sprints, long jump and relay golds. Lots of T&F silver and bronzes too. An interpro soccer medal, an interpro GAA medal of all things.
All of these are either hidden in my Dad's house or in one of the rowing pots

Post Teens and pre parenthood
Interpro Judo golds
4+, 8+ Rowing Nat Championship Pots.
The 4 was won by a bowball (smallest margin in rowing) and the lead changed about 6 times in the last 500m. Twas a hard one!
Loads of rowing pots and medal with the Uni crew. I think we had over 20 wins one year. My favourite medal is definitely from a Regatta in Blessington in the lead up to the Champs. It was one of the worst conditions I've rowed in. Straight headwind and waves. We had an absoloute brute of a dog fight with Trinity and pulled away with a final surge. Normally in a 2000m regatta final you might go for home in the last 500 or maybe sooner. That day we hear Trinity go for home just before half way, they pulled a length out of us and it took us every stroke of the next 1000m to reel in back. It was almost a dead heat. I just remember throwing my heart and soul at it and blacked out for a bit at the end. The medal was this gold beautifully crafted thing that looks more like a World Champ medal than some local reagtta. All of the rowing medals are stuffed with their ribbons into a rowing pot.

Post travelling and becoming a Daddy...
Winning days seems to have well and truely gone.
Plodded through and paced one of 4 marathons.
Finding Tri though has opened up a whole new world of endurance goals for me!
Last year picked up an interopro cycing TT league and a nice AG trophy for the Carna Tri. Also won a low key local aquathon but its fondly remember as it meant winning something involving swimming!!!

911sc

emerald007 wrote: »

what is your favorite medal and why.

...the next one.

Esroh

Like lots of you have mentioned there is a box full in my parents house. Lot sare for team sports but the North Leinster/Leinster silvers won the first year they introduced Walking are the only ones I have kept in my own house. Little did I know then that the guy who left me in his wake was to be a multiple Olympian. Jimmy Mc Donald.

Hard Worker

My favourite is a Leinster Vets CC gold. It's my favourite because I beat a very good athlete whom I respected greatly and it was one of those days when I knew I was going to win at halfway.

rainbow kirby

I've got lots of trophies from my martial arts days. The one I'm most proud of is for team victory in the 2003 taekwondo intervarsities, where I captained the UCD junior womens team.

The running-related medal I'm most proud of is probably my Dublin Marathon 2009 finisher's medal. It's probably one of my biggest achievements, ever.

littlebug

The only medal I ever won was a bronze in the community games art competition in 1980. I drew a picture of other people running fast

longjump67

Had 300+ medals at one time, but ran a sports day for the local kids in the estate and give them away apart from my Ulster medals(50+) and All-Ireland's (15) keep them in a shoe box and take them out now and then, brings back happy memories.
Favorite medal All-Ireland cc team gold Boys U-15 82 or 83, beat St Malacheys of Belfast that year who had previously won the British title a few weeks before.

cickimc

Esroh wrote: »

Like lots of you have mentioned there is a box full in my parents house. Lot sare for team sports but the North Leinster/Leinster silvers won the first year they introduced Walking are the only ones I have kept in my own house. Little did I know then that the guy who left me in his wake was to be a multiple Olympian. Jimmy Mc Donald.

Savage

notsofast

there's a couple of hundred medals in our house, people from different generations running. My personal favourite is a South Leinster schools medal from the late 70's, lovely design. In general, I think the medals from decades ago, before plastic was used, are much nicer than modern ones.

What's the oldest provencial/national medal anyone has seen ? A neighbour of mine from years ago in Kilkenny had lots of Leinster BLE medals from the mid-fifties.

emerald007

My favorite medal, first marathon - Stockholm marathon 2002.