Maybe you win a lot. Or maybe you just run a lot of races that give finisher’s medals—marathons, half marathons, novelty 5Ks. Either way, that first treasured medal eventually blooms into a few pounds of hardware weighing down your doorknob or filling up your dresser drawer. Here are some more fun ways to appreciate—or dispose of—those medals.

Give Them Away

Medals 4 Mettle takes donations of marathon, half-marathon, and triathlon medals. They replace the ribbon with their own, and give them to people, mostly children, who are enduring their own challenges with cancer, chronic illness, trauma, or other life challenges. “These medals are awarded to pay-it-forward to those who must run a much more difficult race than the medal donors’ races; a race they did not choose to run: a race where the finish line might not be known.”

One race was all it took for Andrew Queler to get hooked on running, but it was the prize at the end that kept him coming back for more and more races.

“I love medals. I know it seems crazy,” he said. “They are beautiful works of art.”

Queler ran his eighth OhioHealth Capital City Half Marathon Saturday morning.

“Cap City is great. It’s the first real spring race. I use the races to keep me motivated to stay fit and stay in shape,” Queler said.

Queler said his running journey began as a weight loss journey. He started out as a 220-pound guy, and while losing pound after pound he gained medal after medal.

“I love to run and I love to earn those medals,” he said.

Queler said this race has some of his favorite medals, particularly the one from the 2016 race.

“It’s this big square medal with 13 diamonds on it. It’s beautiful,” Queler said.

He displayed the earned works of art in his basement. That’s where he dedicated an entire wall to hang all of his medals, from 5K races to full marathons. He estimated he has more than 300 medals in his collection.

Queler was not alone. He and his friends created a Facebook page, MW Athletic Community, dedicated to collecting and showing off race medals.

“It might sound crazy to some people but there’s about 9,000 people on the Facebook page,” Queler said. “It was about earning a medal, seeing what medals are out there and different states that you can travel to.”

El Instituto del Deporte de la Ciudad de México presentó este jueves la playera y la medalla que se entregará a los participantes del Maratón de la Ciudad de México el próximo 25 de agosto. 

Ambas presentaciones se compartieron en las redes sociales del Instituto. La medalla de este año representa, en su forma, la zona norte de la capital y en su interior luce un diseño inspirado en la Biblioteca Central de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México acompañado del año de la competencia: 2019.

En lo que respecta a la playera, este año será blanca con los logos emblemáticos del maratón. En la parte superior izquierda tiene la imagen abstracta representativa del Ángel de la Independencia y en la parte inferior la Etiqueta Oro de la Asociación Internacional de Federaciones de Atletismo (IAAF, por sus siglas en inglés), la cual se estrena este año. 

Queremos honores, no premios merecidos. El efecto dodo se origina en el estudio de psicoterapia: todas las formas de psicoterapia parecen ser igualmente eficientes; lo que es terapéutico es la idea de la terapia.

Obviamente, esta teoría es muy disputada por los psicoterapistas. Pero el efecto dodo es evidente en muchas esferas.

Piensa en los premios al cine y la música: hay tantos que eventualmente es muy posible recibir uno. La reacción humana a sentirse impotente es ira; la reacción humana a no recibir un premio es inventarse otro.

Sin embargo, hay un lado positivo en el efecto dodo.

La competencia por estatus sin sentido nos demuestra, en secreto, que el estatus no tiene sentido.

Todos sabemos que los premios no tienen valor, pero los queremos en todo caso. Y que todo el mundo los reciba, no hace que los deseemos menos.