Local designer creates meaningful medal for 2025 Richmond Marathon finishers
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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- With the Richmond Marathon just days away, 8News sat down with the local designer who dreamed up this year's finisher medal to learn more about how it embodies the energy, history and heart of this beloved River City tradition.
Runners will take off for the sold-out 2025 Allianz Richmond Marathon, organized by locally-based Sports Backers, the morning of Saturday, Nov. 15.
Those who cross the finish line of any of the races held on Saturday will earn more than bragging rights. They'll get to take home this year's finisher hat and special finisher medal, among other custom swag.
As it has been in previous years, the 2025 Allianz Richmond Marathon finisher medal was designed by local artist Dion Ellis.
The process to design a finisher medal takes a few months, but Ellis told 8News that he finds those weeks of work more than worth it. He takes his part in commemorating such an incredible achievement very seriously.
The 2025 Allianz Richmond Marathon finisher medals. (Photo: Jakobi Davis/8News)
"I want the medal to have some weight to it, because what they just did has some weight to it -- this is a tremendous accomplishment," Ellis said. "Most people cannot do a marathon, a half [marathon] or even a 4K, so I want them to feel like they really did something significant, because they did," he said.
In general, the finisher medal should not only represent the recipient's racing achievements, but speak to the history of both the Richmond Marathon and the city it takes place in, according to Ellis.
"We are America's friendliest, so you'll see we have a lot of color and stuff on this year's medal," he said.
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Ellis, who has wanted to make it big as an artist since he was young, said he enjoys seeing how excited runners are to have his work placed around their neck.
"As an artist, especially nowadays, most of our stuff just exists on Instagram, but I'm lucky enough to see it on people all throughout the city," he said. "People [are] happy to receive it on race day."
