Our Favorite Race Medals of All Time

There's only one real reason why we lace up our shoes, put on our game face and toe the line on race day. No, it's not the feeling of accomplishment of training hard and executing to the best of your abilities, or exploring new areas while getting in a good workout—it's the ever-attractive finisher medal. 

Finisher medals have been a thing in the running world for a long time, but it feels like race organizers have truly stepped up their game in recent years. These medals are bigger, heavier and blingier than ever before, and have become a not-so-surprising way to attract casual runners to sign up for new events. Throw a "collect them all" tag onto any race series and—like a moth to a flame—runners (including us), who generally would only compete in one race a year, find themselves back at it again before they know it. 

Polling our audience has become somewhat of a tradition at ACTIVE.com, with our popular "21 Awesome Age Grouper Triathlon Bikes" and "25 More Awesome Age Grouper Triathlon Bikes" articles leading the way, but this time we're refreshing our "Best Race Day Medals" article with medals submitted by you.  

From a medal with a hilarious spelling error, to medals with some surprisingly useful features, here are 20 of our fan-submitted favorite race medals of all time.

1 Jarrett Winn

Hypothermic Half Marathon

2020
Jarrett W.


2 Nicole Couch

Miles for Moffitt

2019
Nicole C.


3 Vivek Purohit

Chevron Houston Marathon

2020
Vivek P.


4 Donna Ritchie

Publix A1A Marathon

2020
Donna R.


5 Caitlin Sapp

Twas the Night Before 5K

2019
Caitlin S.


6 Drew Sapp

Towpath Half Marathon

2014
Drew S.


7 Cheri Goldner

Colorado Springs Half Marathon

2019
Cheri G.


8 Scot Loveland

Chattanooga 100 Mile Trail Race

2017
Scot L.


9 Catherine Parker Johns

 

Ninesprings by Night 

2020
Catherine J.


10 Acacia Juanita Stowe

Surfer's Point Half Marathon

2019
Acacia S.


11 Clay Seal

Flying Pig Marathon

2019
Clay S.


12 Amber S

Maratón Powerade Monterrey

2018
Amber S.


13 Donald s

Bird-N-Hand Half Marathon

2017
Donald S.


14 Mehgan Cash

The Big Beach Marathon

2017
Mehgan C.


15 Michael Ng

Atlantic City Marathon and Half Marathon 

2015
Michael N.


16 Susan Keltner Wise

Little Rock Marathon

2017
Susan W.


17 Rob Bires

Boston Marathon

2018
Rob B.


18 Kate Knight

Disneyland Half Marathon 

2018
Kate K.


19 Joanne P

Philadelphia Marathon

2018
Joanne P.


20 Stacy Milburn

Big Peach Sizzler 10K

2019
Stacy M.

READ THIS NEXT: The Best Race Day Medals

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