For some runners, race medals are trinkets taking up space—they keep them in storage, donate them, or even throw them away. For other runners, the medals are meaningful—each one representing a challenge overcome or a race run in honor of a loved one.
Andrea Abel, 33, is definitely the second kind of runner. She started running in 2010 after both her father and grandfather died of cancer. She dedicates every race she runs to them.
Last week, as Abel began packing her car for a move from her San Diego apartment, she took a plastic bin filled with more than 100 race medals down to her car. She loaded the bin into her vehicle but realized she didn’t have its lid. She ran inside to get it, and when she came back the medals were gone.
She couldn’t believe someone would take race medals, and that she’d lost all of those hard-earned mementos.
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“It wasn’t really about the medals, it was about the journey those medals represented,” she said. “I view my entire running experience as a way to extend my relationship with my dad and grandfather, and having those medals stolen was like having those memories stolen as well.”
But she acted fast, hoping to recover some of the bling.
“I happened to be wearing my running shoes, so I started running from neighbor to neighbor, telling them what happened and asking them to look out for them,” she said. “I went old-school and made signs telling people the medals were stolen, and even put one on the back of my car.”
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Her efforts paid off. She received a few phone calls from people saying they saw some of the medals in a dumpster or in an alley. Abel said so far she’s recovered about 30 of the 100 medals.
And fellow runners have stepped up to help her. Abel has run 16 Rock n’ Roll marathons, and said a day after her medals were stolen, race organizers heard her story on the local news and delivered 14 medals from the specific races she’s run.
She also got a call from the director of the Chicago Marathon asking which years she ran, so those medals could be replaced.
Abel runs on a team through the American Cancer Society, and said her teammates are planning to each give her a race medal from one of the World Marathon Majors they ran in honor of someone they love.
“I know how significant World Majors is, and I know how much it means that they’re willing to share those with me,” she said. “I’m not sure I can accept them, but it shows how many people connect to the story of running in honor of someone. I don’t think anyone realizes how truly heartwarming it is for me.”
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“My dad was a huge joker and he loved to send people on scavenger hunts, so this whole experience has turned into a demonstration of what the running community can do and has become a huge adventure we can go on one more time,” she said.
Above, other heroic stories from the running community.
