FINISHER’S MEDAL RACKS

Fed up with having all of our hard-earned marathon finisher’s medals stored in old shoe boxes, I was determined, somehow, to build an affordable medal rack to hold and display at least one year’s worth of medals. The costs of nearly every rack that we saw online were beyond ridiculous, and they only held 4 to 6 medals. Way too small for our need! So the only option was to think of a way to build one that would hold at least a year’s worth of medals without breaking the bank. 

Shortly after having a light bulb moment, a vision of exactly what I wanted, and then measuring our bedroom’s brag wall, I made my way to Home Depot to scout around and hopefully find and purchase what I thought would be matching wood and pegs for my imagined design.

As soon as I spotted the lone-standing red oak 1 X 4’s, I knew there was no need to look any further. And right across the aisle were bunches of 3’ X 1/4” oak rounds, exactly what was needed for the pegs that would eventually hold some of our medals.

The hardware to attach the planned hand-crafted rack to the wall was an easy find, thanks in part to the friendly Home Depot associate that pointed me in the right direction.

Once home, I laid out all of the materials across our queen sized bed. Our brag wall is a rather large wall that faces the foot of our bed.

Now for the hard part, measuring and then cutting the pegs with a dull carpenter’s saw that has been in my tool collection since bread was first sliced. Purchased in the latter sixties, that particular hand saw has never been sharpened. Shame on me!

With nothing to use as a work bench other than two flimsy lawn chairs, I was surprised at the accuracy and professional look of the 2 ½ inch pegs. Admittedly, I did have to use an old rasp to smooth off the ends.

Then there was the wall measurement, keeping in mind that both racks had to be the same height and the same distance from our large Mickey, Minnie and Pluto poster-picture. The four-foot length sections also had to be perfectly level. Only because of my past employment as a carpenter, going way back to the latter 60’s, did I have a carpenter’s level, the kind with the little bubbles.

Using my modern-day rechargeable drill, a gift from my youngest daughter, drilling the bore holes that would hold and secure the wooden pegs was relatively easy. Same with the screw holes, all six of them, three on each piece of 1 X 4.

Attaching the “his & her” racks to the wall took both our efforts. Janet held the wood racks in place while I attached them to the wall. The end result, we think, was more than acceptable.

So what’s one of the first things we now see upon waking every morning? First hitting our eyes every morning are some of the fruits of our chosen active lifestyle, our running, biking and swimming medals. We look at them as on-the-spot, instantaneous, morning inspiration – as well as magnificent memories.