One of the rewards awaiting participants as they cross the finish line of this year’s Mill Race Marathon, half-marathon and 5K competitions is ready.
Mill Race Marathon, the not-for-profit organization that oversees the event, which will be Sept. 28, has released new-look medals that will be given to every participant who finishes one of this year’s races.
The medals for each event feature an engraving of the Robert N. Stewart Bridge, formerly the Second Street Bridge, with the Bartholomew County Courthouse and First Christian Church tower in the background.
The medals are round in the middle, and are adorned with a blue letter “C” around the outside, which was inspired by the multi-colored “Dancing C’s” that appear on signage and other objects around the city, said Dave Venable, a member of the Mill Race Marathon Planning Committee.
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Each medal is made from a die-cast mix of materials, including zinc and aluminum, Venable said. The size of the medals vary depending on the event. The medals for the full and half-marathon are about 4 inches in diameter, while the 5K medal is around 3 inches in diameter.
Mill Race Marathon is working with Brainstorm Print to source the medals and other items for the event, Venable said.
“One of the things we like to do with the marathon medals is make the scene of the medal something that is recognizable to the runners so it either incorporates the logo or the architecture in the city,” Venable said. “We chose the bridge because it is very notable for the runners.”
The medals are the result of a process that Venable said took about four months, which involved about two months of dialogue and brainstorming ideas with other members of the planning committee.
Venable said he and some of his fellow committee members considered several local landmarks for the medals’ design before he and fellow committee member Rachel Foster came up with the idea of the Robert N. Stewart Bridge. Some of the ideas for the design that didn’t make the cut include the covered bridge in Mill Race Park and the Bartholomew County Courthouse. The covered bridge was not chosen because the race no longer goes through Mill Race Park, Venable said.
This year’s medal is the fourth new medal design issued since the inaugural Mill Race Marathon in 2013. Since the event’s inception, new medal designs were issued every two years, but from now on, participants can expect a new design every year, Foster said.
“We have realized how important the medal design is for runners, especially runners who are coming back repeatedly, because they want a new medal to hang on their wall instead of a repeat one,” Foster said. “Because we have realized how big of a deal that is to runners, we’re going to start refreshing medals every year.”
Venable and Foster said they hope the new design will be memorable for participants.
“You’re always apprehensive as to what the final product will look like until you see it because you want the runners to be satisfied with what they get at the completion of the event,” Venable said. “I think it’s nice to have something that the runners will appreciate, and hopefully, this design is something they will remember the race by.”
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As of Wednesday, 117 people had registered for the full marathon, 580 for the half-marathon and 267 for the 5K, according to figures supplied by Mill Race Marathon.
A total of 964 have registered for one of the three races, a 31.5% increase compared to the number of registrations at the same point last year.
Visit millracemarathon.com for more information or to register to participate in the marathon, half-marathon or 5K competitions.
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The medals for each event feature an engraving of the Robert N. Stewart Bridge, formerly the Second Street Bridge, with the Bartholomew County Courthouse and First Christian Church tower in the background.
The medals are round in the middle, and are adorned with a blue letter "C" around the outside, which was inspired by the multi-colored "Dancing C’s" that appear on signage and other objects around the city.
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