My Medal Wall

I like my medal wall. (Actually, it's the end of a bookcase.) I like hanging my finishers medals on a hook. I like the sound of them clanging against each other as I hang a new one. After I hang a medal up, I hardly ever look at it.

I hang these medal up for the same reason I run races, not to win-- which is fortunate, since I never win, and seldom even place in my age group--but to motivate me to run. There's something about pushing yourself in a race, especially a race that's at the edge of your ability, that you wonder when you hit those last few miles if you are going to finish as well as what in the world you were thinking when you registered for it. Those races motivate you in those cold morning and muggy afternoons when you're just putting in miles.

Sometimes when you're training, you wonder whether you should put in an extra two-tenths of a mile or start your cool-down walk. You think about that last race, how the adrenalin felt at the starting line, the

camaraderie you felt with all the other runners. You think ahead to the next race. You think about the medals you've hung on your wall--and that tells you which to choice you'll make.