The Story Behind our "Runner Medal Hangers"

Our line of Runner Medal Hangers has a strong meaning for me.

I emailed one of my long-time sales reps, Joe, for a particular item I needed for business early in May of 2019. I was surprised when a response came back from one of his co-workers saying that Joe was no longer my contact. A follow up phone conversation led to the explanation that Joe wasn't feeling well at work about 2 weeks prior. He went home early and visited the doctor. After testing, it turned out that he needed quadruple bypass surgery (at only 51 years old). 

My friend Joe had surgery and was in recovery. He developed a post surgery infection and was put on a medication to combat the infection. Unknowingly, he had an allergic reaction to this medication and passed away. Rest in peace, Joe.

For me this horrible misfortune became inspiration to take my health more seriously. About a week after I heard of Joe's passing, I laid awake in bed thinking that I needed a goal to focus on for my health. At that point, I decided to run a marathon. I told everyone I am close with, and put it on social media, so that I had no way to back out of the commitment.

I hadn't run consistently in 20 plus years, but I made running part of my life again at that point. I trained for about 6 months. In November of 2019, I entered the Philadelphia Marathon and completed it (just a little slower than I wanted to). It was an amazing experience for me. Completing the race was gratifying, but really the training is what mattered most, and it left me still with something to prove to myself.

Running has become part of my life again for the first time since I was in school. Anyone that is into distance running can relate to that feeling of commitment and accomplishment that we feel when we set a goal and achieve it. I needed a way to display what I worked so hard to complete as a runner, so we designed our personalized male runner medal hanger to display my newly earned medal. Since that time I have now run multiple marathons, half marathons like the Philly Love Run, a few 5 milers like the Media 5 Miler and some 5k's, such as the Penn Fusion 5k, too. I proudly display my medals to remind me to keep working training and working hard.

We ended up making a few different options for the medal hangers as a simple and effective way to display and organize medals that we earn in these races. We have a finish line version of the medal hanger, and we have made both in a women's version. As a runner, I know this would make an excellent gift for a fellow enthusiast. We do have medal hangers for other sports too.

I'd like to hear what has inspired others to run. Comment below with your inspiration for running.