Finisher Medal for running "18 mile marathon"

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mystang52

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Apparently the LA Marathon is giving an option to its runners to "complete" the race by doing 18 miles. I'm an avid, but very slow, runner so trust me I am no running snob. I uderstand the underlying reasoning, but personally don't agree with the decision. Participants have options to run slower, or incorporate more walk breaks, to handle the warm conditions. But if I ran 18 miles I wouldn't deem that completing a marathon and I wouldn't want a medal. It was many years ago, but my first marathon was in sunny, 80+ degrees, weather.
www.runnersworld.com

The LA Marathon Will Award Finisher Medals to Runners Who Complete 18 Miles

Warm conditions are expected by midday, and organizers are urging runners to make smart decisions.
www.runnersworld.com www.runnersworld.com
 
Meet the Parents movie with a 9th place ribbon.
 
The issue is that if you run slower and take walk breaks, you are out on the course longer as it gets hotter and hotter. I have heard of races that raised the black flag when it got too hot, usually around 90, perhaps combined with some level of humidity. This happened in Chicago in 2007. Twin Cities was canceled in 2023 due to impending heat. I'd rather take an 18 mile finish than to have my race scrubbed, especially if I've traveled to it. I don't think I'd display the medal with my others or count it among my finishes but at least I'd get a supported run in.

I don't like it but I guess I see why they'd want to give a medal at 18 miles rather than listen to all the bellyaching about ending the race, and having people run on their own without support.

Mile 18 goes right by the finish line at LA so it's logistically the right place to do this, if you are going to cut it short for some.
 
I have completed one marathon and one half marathon, and I have a second half marathon signed up for in May.

I want all runners to be safe and make smart health decisions.

I would not accept a marathon finisher medal if I had only run 18 miles. I would accept a "18 mile finisher" medal.
 
Running a marathon means you ran 26.

Running 18 means you ran 18.

Some people start and quit at their leisure.

People can run as far as they please.

If somebody ran 18 and said they ran a marathon they would be incorrect, but I'm sure that type of behavior takes place all the time on social media.
 
A marathon is 26.2mi. Then there is the half-marathon at 13.1mi. That's it. There are 5 mi, 10mi, 15mi, 18mi, 50mi, 100mi races, and probably everything in between but none of those have anything to do with a "Marathon".
 
If the awarding of it to someone motivates them to do even more, so be it.
If it makes them feel good that they even got that far, so be it.
If it’s the biggest athletic achievement they have accomplished and helped them lose weight, improve their health, bravo.
 
Just change the name from "LA Marathon" to "LA 18 miler+", and all will be happy ;) .
 
It's common around here to have events that are named things like "City of Trees Marathon" which offer the marathon distance as well as shorter ones like half marathon, 10k, and 5k. For the City of Trees at least, the finisher medals have the distance on them and they are given out accordingly.

When you sign up, you sign up and pay a given fee for the distance you plan to run. Your bib is color coded, and your race chip is probably allocated to that distance so the appropriate timing mats keep track of you the right way.

I shouldn't care what anyone else does, but I will admit that it would bother me if I ran 26.2 miles and received a marathon finisher medal and someone else ran 18ish miles and received the same marathon finisher medal.

It sounded to me like the 18+ finishers at the LA marathon might receive a marathon finisher medal due to the logistics and layout of the course. I don't agree with that approach.
 
I wouldn’t register for the LA marathon knowing that they are giving medals to those who only run 18 miles. That’s ridiculous. The first 18 miles are easy. The last 8.2 can sometimes be a challenge.
 
There is a half marathon in England called The Great North Run which attracts around 60,000 participants each year. For those that can’t make the full 13.1 miles (21.1 km) there are sub events called the Great Run 5k and Great Run 10k which set off at the same time.

I’m in the camp that says don’t give a marathon medal to someone who didn’t run a marathon.
 
Doing only 18 certainly doesn't mean you completed a marathon, just that you completed that particular 18 mile race. But that said, there are lots of runners and walkers who only enter races because they like the bling, and getting any medal meets their needs.
 
sparky08 said:
Ooooo, this might be a way for me to qualify for Boston! :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
Another way to qualify for Boston. Just register for a qualifying race as non -binary. Non-binary finishers need only to meet the Boston female qualifying times in their qualifying races in order to get into Boston.
 
Ronstar said:
Another way to qualify for Boston. Just register for a qualifying race as non -binary. Non-binary finishers need only to meet the Boston female qualifying times in their qualifying races in order to get into Boston.
Click to expand...

I don't even think I could meet the female BQ times.

Now if they'd let me register as a 115 year old female and I could get that past my conscience, then I might BQ.
 
Markola said:
Go for it. Everyone gets a medal these days.
Click to expand...

No thanks. I have a legitimate finisher's medal and a conscience.

I doubt I'll ever qualify for Boston. The times are very fast and my understanding is you have to run even faster than the listed times because of the Boston quota system.
 
SecondCor521 said:
I don't even think I could meet the female BQ times.

Now if they'd let me register as a 115 year old female and I could get that past my conscience, then I might BQ.
Click to expand...
Same here. Unfortunately there isn't a bracket for 115 year old females. We'd have to register as +80 year old females and hope for a sub 5:20 in a qualifying race. And hope that they don't change the quota system in order to keep the number of entrants within reason. Anyway, I don't think that I could get below 5:20 now.
 
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Personally, if I got a marathon finisher's medal and only ran 18 miles I'd toss it in the garbage. That being said, they are doing it to protect the health of the marathon participants so, that medal may save a life. I'm OK with that.

Edit: those that only finish 18 miles are officially recorded as "DNF".

Most of my running medals get tossed anyway. I kept and display my Boston Marathon medal and I have a poster from my first marathon in the Twin Cities. Other than that I have no idea where my marathon finishers medals are.
 
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I have five, slow marathons under my belt. Running 18 miles was part of my later training plans so for me, there would not be any sense of accomplishment if, on race day, I were to only complete that distance. I can understand the race director's caution, but the whole point of running a marathon is to complete the historical distance of 26.2 miles. Now, if a runner in the LA heat stops at 18 miles and is happy with receiving their medal for running a "marathon", I guess I don't care. But I wouldn't accept one.
 
I think this also points out the astounding popularity of half-marathons compared to the full ones.
But the LA race already includes a half-marathon, so this is actually (roughly) a two-thirds marathon. It will be interesting to see if other races follow suit.
 
Medals are silly, in my opinion. I've got marathon medals, and they mean nothing to me. The number of miles isn't the important thing to me. Whatever the race distance, I know I finished or didn't finish. I know when I was pleased with my finishing time and when I wasn't. What a race--or for that matter, a training run or a walk in the park--left me with in my head is all that matters to me. I don't need a lot of encouragement, but I admit that spectators cheering on the runners does feel nice--indeed, it feels nicer than any medal could make me feel. I don't need no stinkin' medal to remind me of the day. Maybe they could lower the registration fee if they ditched medals altogether.
 
As best I can tell, a little over 300 people out of more than 21,000 finishers took the 18 mile finish option. I found this by comparing the runners who crossed the 30K timing mat (21,555) and subtracting those who went on and crossed at 35K (21,236). 1.5%. This was not a mass exodus to get a medal without finishing the marathon.

No word on how many of those 319 actually took the medals, and whether they were bragging at work on Monday about finishing the marathon.

Hopefully none of the 21,000+ full finishers have to explain that no, they did not take the shortcut out.
 
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