Keeping the theme of talking about all the stuff from the 52 half marathons – what did I do with so many medals?
First, I took them to a frame shop in Los Angeles. And I learned a fair amount about framing there… I learned about museum glass and that the largest size a mat comes in is 60″ by 40″. So, if you don’t want any splicing in your frame, you gotta fit it in there.
I felt really, really bad because I liked that frame shop a lot. They were really nice there, and honestly spent a good deal of time with me and my medals sort of laying them out and giving ideas of how they could be displayed… And I really thought I would go with them. (Spoiler alert: I didn’t.)
Their quote was about $2,500 to frame all 72 medals in the same huge frame.
Sure, that seems steep. But when you think about it, you have to use a shadowbox frame because of the thickness of some of the medals. And you have to make so very many cuts. So the labor cost is high… I understood how it could be that expensive.
If you’re wondering on the math how I got 72 medals… In the end, I ran 55 races because I did that bonus celebration race the weekend after 52. Plus I did 2 extra throughout the year because in one I got lost and in one I started late due to a daylight savings mixup. Since I couldn’t count either of those, I had a couple extra races in there. That brings us to 55 races.
However, I elected not to put my Goofy Challenge medals in there because this medal display is going to be a behemoth! I don’t know where I’m going to move in the future or if I’m always going to have 5 feet of wall space (over 3 feet high) just hanging out where I can hang this. So I want the Goofy medals in their own frame, because that was race #52. And I should always be able to find a place to hang that. So, I’ll get the same idea without 1/2 a wall being dedicated to medals from one year of racing.
Also, the Goofy Challenge medals were so beautiful and so special that I don’t want them getting lost in the mess of all the other medals. So, I want them separate.
Mathematically, we’ve now gone from 55 races to 54 medals (since I’m keeping that Disney half separate). Then I had 18 bonus medals. (9 from the Rock ‘n’ Roll series, plus 9 other ones.) That brings us to 72. So, a lot…
How in the world are we going to frame all of them? This is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.