Put That Medal Down!
In the racing community, there are very few things that separate the competitors from the casual folks, and there are reasons for that. You don’t need a “RACE” to be a runner. Just put on your shoes and go run. Boom, you are a runner. The same holds true with swimmers, bikers, triathletes, etc. You don’t NEED to do a race to be that. You are just by doing the activity.
So, why do we have races? In my opinion, we have races so you can test yourself and your abilities. We race so that we can see where our training and our time performing the actions has taken us. It is our own self competition to validate our own efforts. Sure, there is a winner of the race, but 99% of the people who sign up are not concerned with that. We are concerned with OUR OWN personal bests. So we race ourselves.
One of the things that makes racing so great is that not everyone finishes. I know that sounds sadistic, but hear me out. If everyone finished, there would be no real point in the race, again we would be paying to leisurely go out and run. There is a sense of accomplishment when you do finish a race that not everyone finishes. People don’t finish for many reasons. The usual reasons are injuries, illnesses, or not making the time cutoff.
The other thing that makes racing so great is the ability to show-off the fact that you finished. You do this with nothing more than the FINISHERS MEDAL. That medal that you get for crossing the finish line within the rules of the race. It means nothing to anyone NOT racing, but it means the world to the one that did race. It’s not a participation award that everyone gets. It’s a reward that you EARNED. Sure, everyone put in the time training and preparing, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will earn the right to wear that medal. And that leads me to the point of this article.
There are plenty of races out there, mainly the money-hungry races that will give a medal to everyone. The medal doesn’t say “FINISHER” on it, so it’s not toted as a prize for the finisher. Instead it's a “consumer good” that everyone gets in order to feel that false sense of accomplishment. Because that's what it is. In some cases it isn’t earned. Hell, there are even races where as long as you cross the line, in some cases not even as an official finisher, you will still get a medal. That's BULLSHIT!
I don’t fault the race though. Disney, for example, wants to keep their consumers happy, so they reward them for starting. Ironman, for example, is a bit stricter, though they have also bent the rules and awarded finishers medals to competitors who cross the finish line even though they will have a DNF (Did Not Finish) as their official time. I get it, its business. Do what you have to do in order to keep the customer coming back.
I do, however, fault the competitor. You know you didn’t earn the medal. You knew the rules of the event, you knew the guidelines in which you were supposed to finish in order to be an “official finisher”, and you took the medal anyway. Where is your integrity? Where is your sense of pride? You clearly lack that.
I get your argument though, you paid for the race, and you should get something. Unfortunately for you, that argument is WRONG. You paid for the T-shirt you got at packet pickup. That’s what you paid for. That medal is sacred though. How dare you parade around with that around your neck while knowing you did not officially earn it? How dare you cheapen my accomplishment of training and completing the race by wearing your medal without finishing? And how dare you argue with me when I get offended by you parading your medal around like a participation trophy?
You did not! If you want a medal you didn’t earn, pay $30 for a virtual race, use your moral compass to
complete, or not complete, the distance for that race, and wear that medal. Just don’t wear the same medal as me, when I earned mine, and you didn’t. Purchase the race gear all you want. You paid for registration, you toed the line, and you at least started the event. But don’t wear that medal and act as if you earned it.
To you I say, “Put that medal down…. NOW!”
