I have raced in my first two triathlons in ten years and am admittedly hooked. I have received a couple of medals as I have crossed the finish line, one of which was given to my 4 year old and the other to my 5 year old. Don’t worry, my 9 year old is next is line. Just curious if anyone does anything creative (or not creative) with the hardware you get when you finish.
Jeff
Mine are in a box in my storeage closet with my trophies and track ribbons.
Hang them around the neck of a coconut Monkey named, shockingly, “Trophy Monkey.”
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Get a couple of wooden pegged tie racks and hang em in a discreet place in your home. I love looking back at my old medals, it always sparks a memory or two (good and bad!) that helps keep me motivated.
I have a curtain rod that I hang all of mine on.
Most of mine are hanging in our kitchen - one of the walls has a board with a bunch of hooks, and there’s quite an assortment of stuff there. Christmas ornaments, dried flowers, race medals… all that good stuff. My dorm room gets decorated with race numbers/medals/pictures/posters during the school year.
I ran a 15k a couple weeks ago and they gave out medals for that, except all the medals said “Sugarloaf marathon,” not sugarloaf 15k (there was a marathon too). My brother took the medal from me after the race and wore it around… and he wore it to school the next day, to see if anyone would notice. He said that all the teachers asked, “how did your sister do in her race?” 
I have Geeves to look after my medals for me:
Though from the looks of it, the poor old chap needs a cane or something. . .
Usually I give them away. I consider them bad luck, same with race finisher T-shirts. It’s like, if you flaunt that stuff, you are asking for disaster. It’s hubris. I have kept some, and I have a little display at home of my medals from the 2000 Raid Gauloises Vietnam, the 96 Eco-Challenge, the 1999 Marathon Des Sables, the 2001 Jordan Telecom Desert Cup and the Antarctic Marathon. I think this is the only place in the world where you can see all these medals in one place (speaking of flaunting…).
Other than that though, I give them to the people who help me get to and participate in the races I do.
I take them off the lanyard, put them on hooks and use them to decorate my Christmas tree.
Just about all of my place medals and plaques are sitting in a box in the basement.
I put them in a shoe box.
Some people here know Russ Jones - a SoCal 50+ YO local who wins just about every race he enters and a former 2:17 marathoner (was supposed to go to Moscow Olympics). I went to his house, dropping him off after a race. Showed off his huge trophy case full of huge trophies (OK, not Stanley Cup size). He opened a drawer, which was nearly full of medals and tossed his 1st place medal he earned that day into it and slammed it shut while stating, “They don’t give out hardware like they used to in the old days.”
display medals? - nope. But I printed out my e-receipt from Active.com for $470 for CdA 2007 taped to my bathroom mirror.
The medals are generally strewn throughout dresser drawers, garage, toolboxes, closets, etc… Finishers T-shirts I always get the smallest size I can and give them to my kids.
Got a lot of them hanging around my cube at work. Keeps me reminded why I put up with all
the politics here.
Dave
Mine are on curtain rods covering the windows in my basement workout room and bike room. I also cover the doors in the same rooms with all mine and my wifes race numbers. Finsher certificates and posters and race pictures are framed on the walls. Awards are on the shelves in the workout room. It makes for a great atmosphere to get you in the mood to work out or do a little maintance on the bike. Looks pretty cool too!
That is a great way to stay motivated. I’ll have to put up my bank account statement showing my payment for IMAZ next year.
Jeff
I made a titanflex replica out of my medals. I then used the ribbons to make a switch so that I could flog myself every time I though about taking it out in public
I printed out my e-receipt from Active.com for $470 for CdA 2007 taped to my bathroom mirror.
Now THAT’s a classic idea…I love it!
Sadly, the Titanflex is already no more. I raced on it twice and decided that it was not really for me…Smart ass!