Displaying My Running Past

I used to have every single racing bib and medal hanging in our living room in our apartment. I was proud of my accomplishments and wanted to show off.

 

But we never had any visitors and it felt kind of silly having them hanging where they were. I decided one day out of the blue to take down all of my running memorabilia that was in the living room, leaving room on one shelf for my running books and my racing bib, medal, a picture, my knee high sock with "Los Angeles" down the side, my shoe lace and congratulation cards from my first marathon.

 

I kind of thought that it was silly to be bragging about these races. I thought that it was a bit much to show off all of my bibs and all of my medals and to have pictures up from races.

 

But a few weeks went by and I realized that I was missing something. I missed seeing those numbers, those medals, those memories from my accomplishments.

 

I can talk anyone up. If they're having a bad day or are thinking little of themselves for doing something that they don't think is amazing I can put on my cheerleader outfit (not literally- and sorry for that mental image) and wave my pom poms around in order to make them feel better and to boost them up.

 

But ask me to be a cheerleader for myself and I am unable to think of anything positive to say. I can think of a few reasons why this is, and I'm learning how to get out of this way of thinking but not making much progress.

 

Back to my point..

 

I felt like my races were not anything to brag about because there are so many people out there who have done so much more than I have. But there is no reason why I shouldn't be proud of what I have done, in fact I should be showing them off because there are so many people out there who haven't done as much as I have.

 

I decided to put some of my bibs and medals up on a bulletin board.

 

 

But it wasn't really doing it for me. So I decided to make something else to display them. A scrapbook! I'm still in the process of making it, but I'm really excited about it. I think it's going to be just the right size to not be the center of attention, but I can put it out where people can see it without feeling like it's over taking the room.

I am trying to make it fairly simple so that I don't do and re-do it over and over again like I've been known to do. I have one sheet with the list of races for that year and each page after that has the bib, race information and will have a picture or two from the race.

I'm actually pretty excited about it and can't wait to see it finished (which it won't be until I stop participating in races).. I'm not sure where it will go yet. Most likely in the garage when I set up my gym area. Which means I have a lot to work on.

Here are some pictures of past races that I have included in my scrapbook:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are many MANY more pictures, but these are either my favorites, or from some pretty important races for me. What's great is that there are many MANY more pictures to come. I am no where near being finished racing so there are a lot of photo opportunities left.