Heavy medal: Part of marathon’s attraction is the prize at the end of the road

When a visitor enters the home office of Winston Kenton, the bulletin board covered by medals is the first thing that attracts the eye.

To the outsider, the more than 90 medals that commemorate a 25-year marathon career are mere objects. They notice the larger ones, comment on the glossier ones, and are impressed by the sheer amount.

But to Kenton, each medal is a memory. Choose any one and it transports Kenton to the course, triggering a memory of the race, where it was, the year, and his time.

They may just be circular objects to some, but they serve as a memory bank for Kenton and veteran runners like him.

“A lot of people think if you’re going to have all those medals, you should share them and display them for everyone to see,” Kenton said. “But I like having them tucked away in my office. Whenever I look up, I see all those memories. To me, they’ll always mean something special.”

On Sunday, Kenton, a 54-year-old Wichita native, will run in the Prairie Fire Marathon, which will mark his 24th consecutive marathon in Wichita and 37th overall.

Having run marathons across the country, including the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon, Kenton is something of an unofficial expert when it comes to medals. He’s seen the good ones and he’s seen the ones where the race directors put little thought in the medals.

Since rebranding to the Prairie Fire Marathon in 2010, Kenton reports Wichita’s medals have been the class of his collection.

“They look like something you ran 26.2 miles to earn,” Kenton said. “They signify the hard work that went into earning them. Something you can look back on with pride.”

What makes Prairie Fire’s medal original is incorporating a recognizable logo in Sparky the rabbit, which has been emblazoned in a radiant yellow accompanied by a trail of vivid red flames on every edition of the medal.

This year will be no different, as every finisher in all five of Sunday’s races will receive a 4-inch medal designed as a watch. The center features the Wichita Historical Musuem’s clock tower, a Wichita landmark visible from Sunday’s start and finish lines, with the hands of the clock pointing to 10:12.14 to signify the date.

When the Prairie Fire Marathon was born in 2010, a committee was formed to determine ways to make Wichita a destination for the top runners in the Midwest. After extensive research, they concluded producing eye-catching medals would be part of the plan.

“During the process, people kept telling us what they wanted to see from a race,” said Brian Hargrove, who resides on the committee. “The one thing that everybody said was the finisher’s medal. That was the one thing that every runner looked forward to because most of them collect them. The bigger and flashier, the better.”

So Bob Hanson, who assumed control of the race, made it a priority and he believes it has paid dividends.

Hanson, president of the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission, said he expects more than 4,000 runners to compete on Sunday, well over last year’s mark of around 3,300. He said runners from Korea, Morocco, Brazil, and Mexico will compete, and although it’s likely not solely because of the medals, Hanson thinks it certainly doesn’t hurt.

“We try to do a lot of things that are really good,” he said. “The medals are just one of those things.”

All signs point toward Sunday’s medal being the best memory yet.

“All of the early feedback so far has been tremendous,” Hargrove said. “Everyone has said they think we’ve gone above and beyond anything we’ve ever done. I’m just nervous for next year. This is going to be a real challenge to top.”

This story was originally published October 8, 2014 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Heavy medal: Part of marathon’s attraction is the prize at the end of the road."