I’ve been running and doing races somewhat consistently (consistent over the years, if not month-to-month) since late 2001. So when I came home from the Lunar Rendezvous 5K last week, I had one more race bib to add to a pile that’s been accumulating for 13 years.
I used my hand for scale in the photo below so you can see that the pile is ~3 inches deep at this point. Yep, that is A LOT of race bibs — probably not every single one, but close.
At first, I hung these on the bathroom wall in my old apartment — I even used them as a backdrop for this self-portrait that I took in January 2006. (Hey there 27-year-old me! I can’t remember why you took this!) But since we moved to our house in 2008, the bibs have been sitting in a slowly growing pile in the corner of our home office.
I used to write the name of the race, the date, and my time on the back of each bib too, but I fell out of that habit around the same time.
Some of them are cool souvenirs, like this one from Bay to Breakers in 2002. That was one of the first races I ever did — which is crazy, since it draws tens of thousands of people and the crowds are just insane. But even 12 years later, it’s a memorable race for me because of all the hoopla that surround it. (There are broken image links on that old entry, but that’s what you get when you dig that deep into my archives!)
Some of them are less souvenir-worthy. I think this is the bib from the Yuri’s Night 5K in April since it was on top of the pile before I added the Lunar Rendezvous bib, but it’s so generic that I can’t be certain.
As I threw my latest bib onto the pile, it occurred to me that I should really either come up with a way to display some/all of these bibs again like I used to — or else just throw them away. Pulling them out long enough to take these photos was the first time I’ve touched them in years, and there’s really no reason to keep them if all they do is sit in a corner.
SO. What to do with them? Here are the options I’ve come up with thanks to the magic of the internet:
- Put them in a binder — or a photo book if I’m feeling really ambitious.
- Turn the best ones into coasters.
- Buy (or DIY) one of these race bib holders.
- Plaster them all over the wall in the garage — in large frames, or just on their own.
- Stick them in a box on a shelf.
- Throw them away.
I’m leaning towards the large-frames-in-the-garage option…seems a lot easier than binders or books, and it would be a fun decoration for the bare walls in our garage.
Any other bright ideas?
Becca says
I like th garage idea. I’ve been putting my paint pub pictures in the garage mainly inspired by an old woman in my neighborhood who paints for run who has awesome things all over her garage walls. It’s surprisingly welcoming. The coasters are a cool idea too but that’s a lot of coasters.
saroy says
Yeah, my thought too — that would be WAY TOO MANY coasters! Haha.
June says
I only have the half and marathon ones; I did have ALL of them from late 2005 on, but I threw them all away about 4 years ago. I did keep my Bay to Breakers one though just because it was a 12K AND it was out of state race trip.
And I have them nicely stacked on a cute race bib holder my sister got me.
Honestly I would throw away all of them except the ones that mean the most to you. Its excess and think about when you move if you do anything like a garage wall or frames? Ugh. So much trouble for scrap paper.
saroy says
Yeah, you make a good point — there’s really no reason to keep the ones that are so generic I can’t even identify what race it came from! That would probably whittle the stack down to somewhere between 20-30.
Nujoud says
I don’t keep my bibs. At first I was going to for important races, but then decided against it because important races already give me a medal (which I use as Christmas tree ornaments). Plus, my bibs area all completely mangled by the end of the race for some reason, yours are still quite serviceable. But I have Zara’s bib from her first 1k and feel like that is one I will keep and maybe frame for her room.
saroy says
That’s awesome that you kept Zara’s! I can’t wait till Emma is old enough for a kid’s k…
Donna says
Hey, there are a couple things. Irene used her bibs to make a wall border where the ceiling and walls meet, in her bike room — it looks super cool, but 1) Not sure if you have a room for that kind of thing, and 2) You have way too many bibs. I have also seen tote bags made with them. Here’s the one I really wanted to suggest: make a quilt with them! http://blairpeter.typepad.com/weblog/2012/09/race-number-quilt-done.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+typepad/blairpeter/weblog+%28Wise+Craft%29
saroy says
Huh. That actually didn’t occur to me! The material would be weird to sew with, but it might make a cool water-resistant picnic blanket or something, for when you’re sitting on grass! Hmm…
Michele says
My teen boys run lots of races and we display their numbers in their rooms on the wall. I ran a piece of picture wire in between two “stainless steel looking” command adhesive hooks. Then we used hooks that you might hang curtains with to hang the numbers on the picture wire. They started out with one number per hook then they got so many that they clipped multiple numbers on one hook. I’d be happy to email you a picture if you’d like to see it. I discovered your blog when I was looking for some sort of quilting thing…..I don’t remember what it was…….we had recently been to the Kennedy Space Center and I thought it was cool to see what you do
saroy says
Oh, I like this idea too! Even if I still did it in the garage, it’d be easier and more compact than big frames.