Can Finisher Medals Bring You Happiness?
Can finisher medals bring you happiness?
Some endurance runners and walkers might reflexively respond, “No!” They might justify that response with a comment about a medal being “just a thing” and that happiness comes from the inside.
Others might reflexively say, “Of course!” They might justify that response with a comment about how they only race for the “bling” and not to win or even set new PRs.
To bridge the gap between these two groups, let’s go beyond instant reactions and into some details about how a finisher medal might bring you happiness.
I will personalize this with my opinion — that finisher medals CAN bring you happiness — and make three arguments for this opinion.
You see, I believe that a finisher medal acts as a recognition of achievement, as a memory prompter, and as art … and that all three of these roles can bring you happiness. Let’s take these roles one at a time.
Recognition of Achievement
Medals 4 Mettle is a wonderful charity that asks endurance athletes to donate their marathon, half-marathon, and triathlon finisher medals to be given to others as inspiration for the non-athletic challenges that they are enduring — to recognize the “mettle” that these challenged individuals have. (Check out their very touching website.)
However, if I were to give you, a fellow endurance athlete, a finisher medal for a marathon, half marathon, or other endurance race that you did NOT finish, would you be happier? Or, would you be embarrassed for accepting something that effectively is a lie?
Finishing one of these races is a major achievement in itself. How do we know? It can take months to prepare for the event, and a very small percentage of the population has ever finished.
This is in stark contrast to the plethora of ribbons, badges, buttons, and trophies that many schools and athletic programs give to children now simply for their participation in events, in misguided efforts to build children’s self-esteem.
Even children can recognize this misguidedness. I once heard a six- or seven-year-old girl complain that everybody in her soccer league was getting a ribbon or trophy, even though only one team won the league’s tournament.
Summarized more eloquently by Dr. Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute, in a five-minute video, happiness is earned, not given by others.
Memory Prompters
My wife, who earned a Master of Social Work degree and is licensed and recognized as an independent practitioner (LMSW-IPR), likes to say that Alzheimer’s has to be one of the cruelest diseases because, as she asks rhetorically,
“Without our memories, who are we?”
Each of your finisher medals will prompt some sort of memory:
- A personal best/record (PB or PR)
- A personal worst, for what it taught you
- Time with a fellow athlete who has since died
- Completing a race on behalf of someone
- A trip with family or friends to a race city
And, memories can bring us happiness.
Art
Finally, each finisher medal is a work of art.
Want proof? Go to any pasta dinner or other assembly of endurance athletes who have been asked to wear their finisher medals to the gathering.
What often intrigues other athletes about a medal?
- The fame of a race
- The exotic nature of a race
However, beyond obviously HUGE medals (such as the Texas Marathon medal, which has weighed 3.3 pounds(!) for the past few years), what gets athletes to cross the room and approach another athlete to ask about a medal is the beauty of the medal itself.
Have I Convinced You?
If you needed convincing, have I convinced you that finisher medals CAN bring you happiness? How so? If not, how would you disagree? Also, which of YOUR finisher medals now brings you the most happiness? Why?
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Final Thoughts
Finally, think about this: If you would have a hard time donating one of your finisher medals to Medals 4 Mettle or a similar charitable cause, doesn’t that tell you just how dear that medal is to you? And, isn’t its dearness reflective of the happiness that it brings to you?
