I Run For The Bling

I decided to reflect upon last year's idea to 'begin running'. I signed up for my first 10 KM run at the end of March and jumped on the running bandwagon. I have always been athletic from High School Track and Field, years of Figure Skating and currently from joining two soccer teams. But never had I committed to doing a distance further 1500M! I trained for the Sporting Life 10 KM for just a little over a month. Not bad i'd say! And heck, if I can train for a 10 KM in a month...surely I can train for a half marathon in under 9 month's time.

I'm one of those people that run's for the bling, as I have previously stated. I literally have a OneNote file with all the dates of races, complete with prices, websites, pictures of t-shirts and pictures of finisher's medals. Call me crazy, but it's my motivator to get the bling. If i'm running 10 KM and waking up early to do it, i'm getting something materialistic out of it! Anyways, signing up for races has always helped me get my running in check. I know that if I don't finish the run, I have not only wasted my money but I also don't get that pretty medal.

My goal for running this year is to try and get a 10 KM run in each month from April onward. The ones I would like to do are:
April - Yonge Street 10 KM
May - Sporting Life 10 KM
June - Nike 10 KM in Toronto (hopefully, it's a lottery)
July - Haven't found one with a good medal yet....any suggestions?
September - Base Borden 10 KM Run

Then from July, I figured i'v be good enough to do a bit longer of a distance and I hope to sign up for the August Mid Summer's Night Run 15 KM. I thought this run would be a good 'in-betweener' before my first Half Marathon. I'd like my first Half Marathon to be the Niagara Falls Half in October. My mom is also hoping to do this run. I have to be able to do a half before February so a) I can do the Princess Half Marathon in Florida, and b) so I have a Half Marathon time for my corral.

What are your favourite 10 KM or 10 KM + race medals? Please share!