The Blue Ridge Marathon aka America’s Toughest Road Marathon is an annual marathon and half marathon held in both Roanoke and Roanoke County, Virginia. It is not for the faint of heart – runners will enter the Blue Ridge Parkway, and pass through Roanoke Mountain and back, all in 26.2 miles.
The Design
Many ultra-marathons race medals also double as a belt buckle, so for this year the organizers wanted to incorporate this function in their double and marathon race medal. Since the main feature of the race is the rugged ascent and descend of the mountain range, we used the elevation profile as the background of the medal, also using 3D technique to make the mountains come to live! The buckle design allows for ribbons and belt to loop through. The double and single marathon designs are similar, while half marathon and 5K features a circular design with the mountainous ridge background.
The Production
Once the design is finished we moved onto making a medal sample. Medals with lots of detail like this one we use an antique finish so that the mountainous details will show up nicely. As a contrast the large text on the medals is decorated with glitter to give it a little extra ‘pop’. First the virgin medals gets plated with antique bronze, then polished to be smooth and clean; the color is then filled one by one and finished off with glitter. The final products are then inspected and off to the clients!
Running a marathon is no easy task; and this is one of the most challenging course that many runners have encountered – we hope this special belt buckle will bring back wonderful memories of hard work and joy!
Do you have a crazy good idea for medal and need someone to help you achieve it? Contact us today!