When my brother was in high school cross country, he would always show off his medals to my mom after his races. He had a little section in our room where he put all of his medals and trophies. When I ran a couple of years later, I didn’t get as many as him, but won my fair share of medals and trophies. They were all fun to get at the time and we kept them around the room, but after a while, we just decided to put the past behind us and store them away. When I visited my parents in LA not that long ago, I decided take a look at where all of the medals we have accumulated over our combined 6 years of running high school cross country and track. I didn’t bother with the trophies which are stored in some attic-like place in our room.
This is a tiny little cabinet where we store random stuff that we don’t use anymore.
Can’t be any more obvious than that. This box previously stored a bunch of Star Trek: First Generation trading cards (my brother’s not mine!)
There is quite a variety of cross country and track and field medals in here, including huge invitational meets, league championships and more. There was a track meet that our high school ran called the “Meet of Champions”, it was a fun race!
In my post-high school running career, I have accumulated 1 medal so far, which I am very proud of, since it was for winning my AG. I know most half and full marathons give a participatory finisher medal, so I should be expecting more as time goes on. I’ll keep them around my room as a reminder and inspiration as I’m training for my next race. But I’m sure once I’m old and grey and can’t run anymore, those same medals will go in a box just like this one. Hopefully that won’t happen for a long time!