I blinked and Spring happened...

Well, I knew this spring semester was going to be a doozy, but I didn't realize how big until I sat down to write today and saw my last post was from DECEMBER!  Yipes!!

But, lots has happened in the meantime, so for a quick catch-up:

• I am in my final semester of grad school, and almost done with that (only 5 more weeks now!!)
• I finished my End of Project Exam in February.  This is the capstone exam for my degree program - Written Comps/Comprehensives, some might know it as.  Basically a looong week of writing papers, trying to demonstrate in your answers that you are fully synthesizing what you have learned over the past three years.  Pretty draining, with the way I write papers.  But all is good; I've been notified that I've passed.  One more box checked off before graduation!
• I finished a pair of blankets for my niece and nephew.  THE blankets, if you've heard me talk about them.  Quite the project, but finally all done and being enjoyed by the little ones :)
• We had a whirlwind trip to New Mexico with Mom for a marathon.  There are so many pictures from this trip, that it will have its own set of posts.
• And the big news (as if all that wasn't enough): Zach and I have moved!  We are now in a hotel in HAWAII looking for housing as Zach in-processes at his new job. After 5 years in TX and 3.5 in the desert, we are in Hawaii!!  Water!  Mountains!  Trees!  Very very exciting!!!!  But more on that in another post, since the whole move has been a saga unto itself.

So, yes, a few more posts to come over the next few days, with plenty of pictures.   I've time to write again, now that the semester's winding down and I'm not working at the moment.  Just consider this a teaser for now, so stay tuned :)

Something to show for all my schoolwork

So after all the posting during the conference this summer, I was hoping I'd have more momentum to keep writing through the fall.  Well, it partially worked.  

I've done a great job writing for my classes!  Unfortunately, little time (or mental energy!) for other writing.  This semester has been a very, very busy one.  I've had two courses, plus my practicum.  Basically, I was full-time grad student who was also working full time.  Like I said, very, very busy!  

But, I have a project to brag on now!  My practicum was spent at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, a university in the next town over, working with their digital resources librarians.  And as a result of my work this semester, I've created a digital collection!  I talked through the template with the librarians, and we created the fields, determined how we wanted to catalog and present the metadata (information on the item and how it's displayed on the page or not), and then I actually did it.  I've cataloged about 50 issues now, all up on the website.  Call me dorky, but I think this is really cool.  I'm honestly quite proud of it :) 

"My" collection is for The Baylorian, a student literary magazine.  The Baylorian is a literary magazine now, but it didn't start out that way entirely.  Back in 1912, it also had campus events and news, jokes and cartoons, odds and ends.  Over time, it evolved to be a more traditional student literary magazine - more poems, essays, and short stories, and less Hints on Headgear (no really - hat fashion tips, May-June 1921).  It's always been student created, though, which makes reading through them fun. Zach says it's not really schoolwork if I'm having this much fun reading them, but what can I say?  They are fun!

Part of the fun was looking at what has changed and what hasn't over the past 100 years.  Most of the issues I was cataloging were from the 1910s, after all.  Every time there was something which was so very, very dated, there would be something that was still very true today.  Jokes about freshman vs seniors, or men vs women, for example.  Take away the slightly dated wording or vocabulary, and you'll have something you might hear on a college campus today.  When the articles were on serious topics, that was even more striking.  The more things change, right?

Some highlights:

• I love the names.  Seeing as we started with the oldest ones first, I was cataloging issues from the 1910s, 20s, and 30s.  Some of the names are very characteristic of their time, so sound very dated now (lots of Frances, for example, and a surprising number of Minnie).  And some are good ol' stereotypical, small-town Texas (Lula Belle worked on the staff for several years, for example, and Ethelyne). And then you take them as a group, with five or six names on a staff... it just makes you smile.  Of course, in 100 years, people will probably be thinking the same thing with all the Mikayla, Bella, and Madison now.
• 1920s debate speeches  There were several collegiate debates in which UMHB participated, and the Baylorian later published all four speeches (two affirmative, two negative) from each debate. The topics: immigration reform (June 1922), and the purpose of the electoral college (should we keep it? May-June 1921).  Take away the specifics on the immigrants and their country of origin, and you could hear the exact same arguments being used by candidates today.
• On Being a Twin (Fall 1931) shows that my niece and nephew would probably be fielding the same sort of questions 80 years ago as they do now.  For example, on trying to distinguish themselves from each other: "Another brilliant idea of ours is to wear different clothes at times. The attempt is futile. The world then wants to know why we do not dress alike if we are twins."
• My favorite issue of all has to be November 1916.  In the campus events news, there were write-ups of two -count them, 2- possum hunts.  The Senior Class hosted one, and so did the Fine Arts department.  Each had a write-up too.  Excuse me: 'possum hunts.  The apostrophe was apparently still standard at this time.  Remember too: at this point, the school was still Baylor Female College, an all-women's institution.
• November 1916 also had an advertisement for a Turkey Trot in Temple, TX.  In 1916, this apparently referred to REAL turkeys!  Mr. Jarrell, owner of Jarrell's Mississippi Store, was planning to "turn loose a drove of fine turkeys from the roof of his building, Catch 'em and they will be yours."  Funnily enough, Temple still hosts one of the Turkey Trots in the area, though nowadays it's a Thanksgiving Day 5K.  We ran it last year :)

So there you have it.  A brief sampling of the fun times (and extremely dry sense of humor) which have been filling my fall.  Read and enjoy.

Oh So Pinteresting Wednesday: I have joined the ranks of the tutu-ed runners!

There was a Halloween-themed race in our area on Saturday last, with a separate costume contest for the Little Monsters, of course.  The bigger monsters were also encouraged to come in costume - so I did!  I've done other runs in costume, but hadn't done a tutu yet.  But they are getting really popular, so I thought, why not?

The tutu itself is incredibly simple and offers a lot of variation for costumes, theme runs, and similar silliness.  The craziest part?  People will charge $30 or more to make them, when they are SO simple to make yourself!!  So (being the cheap, crafty type that I am) I set about doing some research (Pinterest, of course) and buying some tulle :)

What you will need:

• Tulle - you'll need 2-8 yds of tulle.  Comes in tons of colors, as well as shiny and glittered varieties.  I used 2yds each of 3 colors (black, purple, shiny orange).

• It's an inexact science to figure out how much you need, but rule of thumb: More tulle = Fluffier tutu.
• You probably want the finer mesh tulle - less scratching as you're running.  But, personal preferences and all that.
• ALTERNATIVE: tulle ribbon.  These are found in the wedding/floral sections of the craft stores.  Probably need about 4 spools, judging from other instructions I found out on the Internet.  I just used tulle off the bolt - required more cutting, but cheaper and had the colors I wanted.

•  Ribbon - long enough to go around your waist and tie securely.

• ALTERNATIVE: elastic.  1/2 to 1 inch wide elastic works just fine.  Don't really want to go narrower than that - you are running in it after all, and want it to be at least a little sturdy. If you're using elastic, you'll also need needle and thread.

• Scissors 

What you do next:

1.          Cut your tulle into strips about 4 inches wide.  The strips are attached to the skirt band doubled over, so you'll want the strip lengths to be twice what you want the skirt length to be (i.e., if you want a tutu 9 inches long from the waist, cut 18 inch long strips). 

• If you are using tulle-on-a-spool, that's easy - it's already at the width you want, so you'll just cut it to the length you want.  Remember - 2x the length of the skirt.
• If you are using tulle from the bolt, fold the piece of fabric so that it is length you want, and then cut into strips.  

2.          I cut all my strips, and kept them grouped into piles by color.  I held one strip of each color in each bundle that I attached to the ribbon.  Other variations I saw made their skirts striped, so each bundle is one color only, alternating colors around the band.  All in your preference.

3.          To attach the bundles of tulle, you tie it on using your choice of knots.  Some instructions just tied on the tulle with an overhand knot, but most used the Lark's Head knot (even if they didn't know what it was called).  The Lark's Head is the 'up, over, and pull-through' knot, about as simple a knot as you can get.  Yay for learning this stuff in Girl Scouts!  I'm not going to explain it any more, because there are tons of clearer directions out there with videos and diagrams and all (including in one set of the instructions below), so I'm sure you can find one that is clear to you. 

4.          Since I was doing a no-sew version, I was attaching my tulle to a length of ribbon, long enough to go around my hips and tie.  I started attaching my tulle in the middle of the ribbon and worked out from there, adding bundles on each side.  The more tightly squeezed in your knots are, the more tulle your skirt will have, and the puffier it will be. 

5.         Keep adding tulle until you run out of space or of tulle.  I had ended up not cutting my strips evenly, so I had more orange and black than purple.  I added a few bundles of black and orange (and even just a few orange-only), but they blend right in.  There's so much color and movement in the skirt anyway, that a little unevenness like that won't show :)

6.         Ta-da!  You're done!  Go tie it on and have some fun :)

Other references I used (there are 1,000,001 different instructions for tutus out there; these are a few I looked at for research, in no particular order):

• Idiot Runner Girl 
• Sparkling Fashion 
• The Hair Bow Company
• Hyvaa Paivaa Textiles (don't worry, it's in English)
• My Happiness Redefined
• Cut Out and Keep
• Healthful MD - very good description of the Lark's Head knot too, if you're unfamiliar with it.

And then the race itself!  

The skirt was the final piece in my costume which also included striped knee-high Halloween socks and a hairband with a tiny witch's hat.  So cute, and only $1 at Target!

 

If anyone asks, I chose the ribbon with the apples because witches and poison apples and the whole deal.  But really, it was the first one I grabbed out of my stash that didn't clash completely :)

Thoughts?

• Fun, ridiculously silly, ridiculously easy - win win win!
• There are tons of ways to customize these suckers.  As I said above, you can make them striped or color-blocked, depending on how you arrange the colors.  You can add ribbon to add some contrasting color, or use strips of fabric or wide ribbon instead of the tulle to make a different kind of skirt altogether (swishy, rather than poofy).  And just playing with the colors of tulle, there are tons of options: I've seen ones with different holiday color schemes, ones for each of the Disney princesses, red ones with large white spots as part of a Minnie Mouse costume, blue ones with large stars as part of a Wonder Woman costume, lots of pink and purple ones for fairies, green ones for Tinkerbell... the list goes on and on.
• I don't know if I'd be able to run longer than a 5K in the costume I used on Saturday.  I was pretty pleased with my race time and I like the skirt, but the tulle can get bunched between your legs as you run.  I did have to walk a few moments during the last mile to rearrange my skirt.  In the future, I'd either need to make it shorter, so that it sticks out more than it drapes, or wear running tights - which it was definitely too warm for on Saturday... yay Texas :(
• All in all, though, a fun project and a fun race!

Oh So Pinteresting Wednesdays: Race Medal Displays - The Projects

So, after all this, allow me to show you what I turned out for myself.

I made one for myself, and have supplies for a second very (well, fundamentally) similar one.  It's a basic shelf with a few picture frames slots and a flat surface below where I can add hooks to hang medals.  I was really searching hard for something like this, because I wanted a chance to show off pictures (I've got some great ones of me or me and friends/family at races or other runs) and I wanted the shelf for my (2!) trophies.  This one I found in Ross, of all places. 

 

I sanded it down a little, primed and painted.  My craft room has a lot of that teal color, but I wanted to be able to hang this wherever, not just in that one room.  I removed the hooks it came with and used mug hooks instead, measuring out staggered rows to fit in as many hooks as I could.  In some of the instructions I've seen, the writer painted the cup hooks first, but I liked the brass with the dark paint, so one less step for me.  I did have to use the drill to get the holes started, but after that, I could just twist in the hooks by hand.

 

Altogether, my supplies looked like:

• Primer (in stash)
  
• Paint - Rubbed Bronze (in stash)
• Mug hooks (Home Depot)
  
• Picture shelf (Ross)
• Lots of sandpaper

So, after lots of sanding and painting and drying time, the hooks are on the shelves, the shelves are on the wall, and the medals are on the hooks.  Look nice, don't they?  And it costs way less than one of the purchased ones, leaving me extra proud of myself :)

 

You can see better in the second picture the actual size of it all, more of the wall to put it in context.  There's a little wall at the landing at the top of our stairs which is the perfect size for this.  Oh, and Zach's medals are up there as well as mine - he's got bragging rights too!

Oh So Pinteresting Wednesday: Race Medal Displays - The Research

This week, my Pinteresting project involves my race medals.  Race swag accumulates like no one's business.  Bibs, medals, assorted other paraphernalia... little mementos of these events.  And of course, you want to show off the important ones.  I've always simply pinned my medals into the wall, stacked neatly in a column down a thin section of wall (like at a doorway or something similar).  But I've been thinking more about a neater way to do it.  More transportable (we do move a good bit, after all) and fewer holes in the wall.  And yes, maybe a little easier to add new medals to, since I'm kinda particular about how neatly things are hanging.  

So, after a bit of research via Google, etsy, and Pinterest, I found some ideas for DIY medal and bib number hangers.

At airplanes and treadmills (now Janelle Runs), she put together a joint bib/medal display.  I really like the paint effect, but I'm not big on the chalkboard paint.  I'm just not big on chalkboard paint in general, though.  It's one of those things sooooo-very-common on Pinterest that I just don't do.  Like burlap and mason jars.  Still, she gives very clear directions, which I definitely like.

Pavement Runner has directions for basic bib and medal displays (separate pieces, not a combination one like above).  She stenciled her displays, instead of the reverse stenciling (is that the right term?) like at airplanes and treadmills.

The girls at Southern Color have directions for a simple display - one number and a medal or two.  Seems like it would feel cluttered with more, but for displaying goodies from one particular race, I think it'd be a nice option.

Jenny over at Love Eat Run gave her directions for a photo display medal hanger.  I really liked this one.  And, as I've mentioned before, mile 11 pictures seem to work well for me, plus I've got some post-race pictures I really like too.  Yes, I definitely have some photos to display as well as the medals.

Liz Runs has another DIY option I really like.  She took a basic coat-hanger-with-shelf and added a few more hooks to make a simple display.  I like the shelf option here - an easy place to put a few trophies or a certificate, or an additional picture or two.

Running with the Girls has a different option altogether, though no instructions.  A gift from one of her running buddies was a medal display which looks like it was based off of a decorative small curtain rod.  A little different from the other options I've found, which focus on pegs instead.  Too bad there aren't instructions, but it was a gift, after all.  Found a similar one on etsy at Inspirational Piece - still no instructions, but a little bit bigger picture.

Finally, if after all this, you're still not sure you want to make your own version, there are numerous places online to find neat displays.  

• Gone for a Run has some lovely metal ones (my favorites are the I Run This Town series)  A nice point to this style is the extender bars - definitely a plus.  Gone for a run also has clips for the ribbons, to pin back extra ribbon as they are hanging on a display - a little more subtle than paper clips or binder clips!  The custom display option is there, as well.
• Sport Hooks (Heavy Medalz) has a whole bunch of Rock & Roll Marathon Series displays.  Yes I do have a couple of R&R medals (3 VB, 1 AZ, 1 San Diego) but I have a lot of other race medals too.  And yes, it would bother me to be hanging other medals on a R&R display.  I'm like that though - it would also bother me to have half medals on a rack labeled for full marathons, and vice versa.  Still, they are neat looking displays.
• Allied Medal Displays has some more very pretty, sleek metal options.  I really like their 50 States-50 Marathon designs (or 50 Half Marathons, too).  And the "give a girl the right pair of shoes" one too.  They also do custom displays.  Of course, custom = more money.  The eternal trade-off.
• In View Designs is more of the shadow-box style display, instead of wall-mounted racks.  A little different, but still pretty nice.
• Made 4 Medals has another different style of display.  This one might be easy to recreate, too.  I like this one, too, as it's a bit neater looking than simply hanging the medals.  Maybe one day I'll sit down and try to figure out how to do it.
• There are tons of etsy options (a quick search just now for "marathon medal display" turned up over 200 results). They have ones from metal workers, wood carvers, crafty types... you name it. 
• Running on the Wall is an etsy shop I particularly want to point out - TONS of varieties of displays.  They've got lots of different size and color and quote combinations.  Other sports are available too (triathlon, swimming, hockey, wrestling, custom...).  I particularly like their "13.1: Only Half Crazy" one :)
• Running Hutch has another purchase-able option - a belt or tie rack.  The one she found also has a shelf on it, for pictures or trophies.
• Anchors Aweigh doesn't list instructions or sells them herself, but this is her Top 10 list of displays, and I liked a bunch of them, so I wanted to include the link.  My favorites are the funny ones ("I got suckered into another one" and "Whose idea was it to add the 0.2?")  
• Anchors Aweigh also had another Pinterest idea for race medals - making magnets from them!  I tracked down two sets of instructions - from Everybody Loves VD and from Deemed Legally Fit.  I don't know if I'd do this, though.  Several of my medals have really pretty ribbons, and a couple are reeeeeally heavy, so would need a bunch of magnets to keep them up.  And then, I write the date and time of the race on the back of the medal, too, so that I can remember and see my progress.  So, don't know if I'd ever make the medal magnets, but still a neat idea.

So now that I see where I want to go with this, let's get started!   (To be continued!!)

Crazy Colorful Fun!

I have now done a Color Run!

I've been wanting to do one of these for a couple years now, really since they first started getting popular.  With one thing and another, I just couldn't make one.  There are actually a bunch in the area, too.  Austin and Dallas both have them, if I don't mind driving.  Temple and Killeen both have them too, which was more surprising.  But between schedules and having people to run with, it just wasn't working out for me.  Normally having buddies on a race isn't a big deal for me, but with this one, it just seemed like a More-The-Merrier sort of thing.

So, we were planning on doing the one in Killeen this fall (November).  We still might, come to think of it!  But then we lucked out.  MWR on post puts on races regularly through the year, and the 4th of July race is one of their standards.  This year, they decided to make it a color run!  Couldn't pass that up!  So here we are, nice and clean white shirts, all ready to go. 

If you're going to do one of these, the pre-race picture is important - lets you see how very dusted you actually became!

The race itself was fun, but crowded.  It was by far one of the biggest turn-outs I've ever seen at an MWR event, let alone a race!  Everyone was taking advantage of it!!  There were so many people there, I wouldn't call it a race at all.  It was still a 5K (they just used the post's usual 5K course) but with all the people, and especially with so many kids and first time runners, it made quite a crowd to maneuver through, in spite of the wave start.  Even with the crowd, I'd say it's worth doing.  Especially if you can talk someone into trying a 5K for the first time.  All the colored powder and no timing definitely makes it a less intimidating introduction to running.  Anything to encourage people to be more active, right?

Despite what you might think looking at Zach's shirt above, the majority of the color doesn't come from the race itself (unless you make a special effort) but from the Color Party afterwards.  Zach got so very blue by being at the front of the first wave.  The volunteer color teams (those who throw the powder at the runners) were still VERY excited as he was running through.  The kids especially were having a blast trying to get the adults with the color.  Living in Texas, we don't actually get snow to speak of, so this is the closest we can come to a snowball fight and being able to legitimately throw stuff at one another.

 

As you can see below, the Color Party  leaves significantly more color on a person!  People got little bags of color as they finished (I think it comes in the race packets in an average Color Run).  And then at the party, the volunteers spray powder over the crowds (in the pictures above) and people toss their powder up (or at each other).  Everyone gets very colored!

Surprisingly (I suppose) for a crafty-type person, I did not try to set the color on my shirt.  Zach and I talked about it, but ultimately, I just washed it back to the basic white.  I took pictures, though!  You can probably see why I chose not to - the funny green stripe from Zach hugging me, and the sports bra-shaped void on the back are just kinda funny.  So, would rather have my basic black and white running shirt back.  Zach's shirt we didn't even try to salvage!  

 

The powder does wash out, eventually. My hat is back to black, and after a few washes, my shirt is white again too.  Maybe at the November race, I'll try and get a better "design" on my shirt and try and set it then.  We'll see!  :)

I'm sharing the crazy!

I got Zach to run a marathon!!  A full one!  This was a couple weeks ago, April 21st, but we just got the email over the weekend that the race photos were up and online, so it reminded me that I hadn't shared yet.

The Army Marathon was a point-to-point race between Temple and Killeen.  Pretty interesting race in itself.  Kinda crazy planning your long runs thinking about running to the next town over...

Good luck!  I posted both pictures, since you can't really read the sign in the picture with Zach in it :)

 

The grins are still nice and big at the starting line!  We ran into a coworker of Zach's whom we see at a lot of the races in the area and got him to take our picture.  A nice "before" shot, y'know?

 

The race planners had done a great job for timing.  The race start was 0630, so it was still dark when we all set out.  It was a little cool at the start, since we'd had a cold front move in.  But had it been normal spring weather, that early start would mean that even the pokey runners like myself would be done before the sun started being miserable.  The extra bonus to the early morning start is that we were on the course as the sun came up.  Made for some pretty skies!

But really, we couldn't have asked for better weather!  It's Texas in the spring, so goodness knows what sort of weather you're going to get.  We lucked out ROYALLY!!  65 and overcast the entire race!  It had been in the 90s the week before, and climbed back up after Sunday, but the race day itself?  Not too sunny, not too windy, not too hot or cold.  Very Goldilocks - juuuuust right!

How'd we do?  We actually finished about 6 minutes apart.  Zach took it out a little fast and his knees started objecting about halfway, so he did a lot more walking than planned.  I dropped about 20 minutes from my Long Beach time - new PR!  I seem to have come up with a training plan that works:  get sick the week before the race.  This isn't the first race that I've been sick right before, and then run a strong race.  As best I can figure, it forces you to rest (mandatory taper!) and it knocks off the nerves and pressure.  After battling a bad cold all week, I was debating up until Saturday morning if I was going to run on Sunday or not!  So, at the starting line on Sunday morning, my whole goal was "FINISH!"  With less pressure on myself, I relaxed and just ran as was comfortable.  Kept my goal pace up until about mile 14, then had to slow down a little.  By mile 17-18ish (my usual wall) I had pretty much reversed my walk and run intervals, doing a lot more walking than running.  That was the point I could tell I had been pretty sick the week before.  But I finished! And with a very strong first half, I dropped time!

And how was the race itself, being its first year and all?  Very well done!  I'd definitely recommend it to anyone in the central Texas area, or anyone who wants to come in and visit (kinda an odd destination race, but you meet all types).  Minor changes and suggestions to make, but really, the important stuff was covered.  Packet registration went pretty smoothly. Plenty of water and sports drink stations through the race, and port-o-potties on the course regularly.  Intersections were always staffed to direct runners and any cars passing through.  The shuttle back to Killeen from the finish line didn't have too much of a wait (veeeery much appreciated on tired legs).  Good shirts and a pretty decent finisher's medal, too.  And a side note - being held the weekend after the tragedies in Boston and West, TX (only an hour and a half or so from us), it was handled very well, considering the enormous impact those events had on the community represented at the race (both runners and central TX residents).  You could tell the security had been upped a bit - a lot more patrol cars on the route than a race this size might expect, and K9 units noticeably at the start and finish.  But the event still ran very smoothly.  For being a first year race, that's pretty impressive.  So yup, definitely a recommended race if you're in the area.

I know when I ran my first one, I wasn't sure I'd ever run another.  But hey, I'd finished at least one, which is a heckuva lot more than many people do.  I thought I'd pretty much stick with half marathons and shorter, now that the big box was checked off.  Unless of course, there were special circumstances...

Which lead to Long Beach.  A few days before a friend's 40th birthday, and with a handful of folk from post also running.  So, yes, plenty of reason to make an exception for another one, right?  The power of peer pressure!

And then the standard was set - if there is a good reason, I'll consider that crazy distance again.  Ta-da: Killeen decides to co-host a marathon with neighboring Temple.  And since I needed motivation for spring runs, I was signed up again (and managing to talk Zach into it too!)

Killeen is a kinda nondescript town.  It's not miserable (i.e. not like our last post!!) and civilization is available and not horribly inconvenient. But it's not a place that really has any character of it's own.  Just kinda a large bedroom community for the post here.  And with Austin and Waco being so close with so much going on, it's very easy to write things off, "oh, I'll just go to Austin for that."  With races though, that's kinda hard, even though both Waco and Austin have a lot each year.  For a big race like a half or a full, traveling an hour and a half or so away means hotel stay, meals to consider, lots of travel after a very long race... makes an already expensive and time consuming race a lot more work.  Having a race right here in our own back yard is a chance you can't pass up!

So, yes, supporting a marathon that is actually close to home was important.  And it supports some close-to-home causes, too, to ice the cake.  It was the inaugural race this year - if there's a good turn-out and positive reviews, they'll keep having the race.  Which means something positive for the community.  Definitely one to run.

The funny thing is, Zach had that "first-and-last" marathon attitude when we finished too.  And then yesterday, he said he might run another, just to earn a time he'd be happier with.  Who knows?  We'll see what we think next year!

(PS - sorry I didn't get any finish line shots - we were both exhausted and just wanted to get home to a nice long bath!)

One last race post!

As I'm having a morning of typing up 'End of 2012 Race Results, Notes, and Thoughts' sort of posts, there's one more race to share.  This one was a 5K, another free one on post.  There's one about once a month, and we try to get to the ones we can.  Again, yay for MWR!

This one was the Holiday Dash, or some similar name, held the week after the Jingle Bun Run.  It was the last MWR race for 2012.  Pretty nice way to end the year's race season too.  Not quite as perfect running weather as the week before, but still pretty nice.  They raced the course in the opposite direction from usual, which I wasn't as fond of.  The 5Ks on post typically run the same route, so I guess they were trying to mix things up.  But it meant that the race started with a steeper uphill, instead of finishing with a nice coast downhill.  Not as much fun for me, I'll admit - I'm a little flat-lander coastal type.  I like my flat races :)  With my legs still tired from the week before, it wasn't my best time, but it was still a respectable run, and I had fun.

We did dress up for the race, which contributed a lot to the fun.  Zach was still getting over a running injury, and I'd had the big race the week before, so we both figured we'd go out and just have a good time, not worry about speed so much.  Zach pulled out his Santa suit from the Great Santa Run a few years ago, and I was an elf to accompany.  You can't tell from the picture so much, but my hat has elf ears on the sides!  And of course, the stripey knee-highs again.  Turning into good luck running socks, I think!  I also carried jingle bells too (you can see them in my hand).  Zach laughed that carrying the bells helped him keep an eye (ear?) on my pace - if the bells were nice jingling nice and steady, I was truckin' right along.  The more tired I got, the bells bounced and jingled a little more erratically :)

 

Wearing costumes ourselves definitely made me notice was the lack of Silly Holiday Spirit in the runners!!  I don't know if it's TX or this area or this post, but we were the only ones really dressed up!  There were a few sporting Santa hats and one or two reindeer antlers, and one other elf, and that was it!  Maybe it's coming from bigger running areas than where we are now, but the holiday runs always included a bunch of costumed runners in attendance.  I remember one runner decked out as a Christmas tree - green sweatshirt with tinsel and ornaments, and a headband tree topper!  Lots of kids at this run (I think it was part of a school PE program?) so they had some Santa hats, but very few of the adults.  Humbugs! 

So, of course, being two of the few festive runners, as well as the only Santa in the bunch, we got noticed!  They had us come to the front to start the race with all the kids, and we had lots of Ho Ho Ho-ing to do as we ran along, but it was fun.  And of course a lot of jokes about where did Santa's belly go ("This is what running'll do for you, kids!")  The best reaction to Zach's suit was as we were cutting through the gym after the race to get back to the parking lot.  We passed a family with a few little boys, and the smallest (about 6 years old?) just looked up at Zach with these ENORMOUS brown eyes.  "WOW!  Santa's at the basketball court!" - you could just read it in his face.  So cute!!  Zach bent down and talked to him a moment, and chuckled with the little guy's dad.  Priceless face, though, lemme tell you!

And the press was out there!  Besides starting the race, our holiday garb got us interviewed!  It was the last race of 2012, so the post paper's sports columnist came out to write it up.  He came up to us at the end and interviewed us as we were enjoying our post-race bananas and cheering for the other finishers.  And yes, we did make it into the paper!  Not the front page of the sports section, but one of the articles with a front page leader.  In the picture they printed, you can see Zach's Santa very easily over the kids in the picture, but my striped elf hat and socks are a little harder to catch.  But we're there!

Race Preps

Following on yesterday's post...

As I was preparing for this race, I was thinking about times and paces and all  At several of my previous races, I've used one of those pace bands - the wrist band with times marked on it for mile splits so you can keep track of your pace for your goal time.  Usually they are free at the race expos for the bigger races (Clif bars is one vendor which usually has them).  Well, with the race in Temple being a little local thing, no expo, no pace bands.  I've always used the mental math to help the miles pass in these races.  Some people sing, others chatter, I calculate pace and time left and what I need to maintain and so on (yes, I am that dorky).  So I like the pace bands to give me a starting point to play with. 

Enter the magic of the Internet!  

A quick search reveals lots of sites to find free printable bands.  Enter your goal time, the miles (or km if you prefer) are calculated.  Print it up, cover with clear tape (or something similar) and there you go!  

However, there are LOTS of sites out there.  A simple Google search will turn up waaay more than you'd imagine.  Some are good, some too complex to be user-friendly, some prone (unfortunately) to being virus-infected.  And all are a little different in the format and what they offer.  I'm compiling my list here to tag some of my favorite ones.  I'd suggest looking at all of them and seeing which format works for you.  Things like font, font size, spacing, and other layout-type details are really more personal preference.  Gotta play around with them and see what you like, y'know?

• Pace Tag- from the Ottawa runners' web page.  Formatted as a small enough pace chart to attach to your watch, instead of a full band.  Lets you include pacing for walking breaks too, which is nice.
• Lucozade - a nice and simple format.  Produces your band as a pdf, so you can save it; that's pretty unique, when most of the other bands were web-based.  Useful, too, if you typically have the same goal time (just need to save it once, then can print it up again as needed).  Also includes a handful of free training plans.  Site does give you a warning about cookies used by the site.
• mymarathonpace.com - very customizable, including adjusting your pace (slow start, fast finish, etc).  Handy if your race has hills, or something else that might affect pacing.  On the other hand, that can become more complex than one might need.  Also prints in a format where you see both the elapsed time and the pace for each mile.  Will be very useful for those VERY large races where the early miles are too crowded to really get up to speed, and I'll need to adjust my pace accordingly.
• RunTex - another very simple format.  And hey, some Texas representation on the list too, I guess?  :)
• Runners' World - yes, this is the UK site.  I haven't found the same thing on the US site, but other than automatically coming up in km not miles, it is pretty easy to navigate :)
• The Seattle Marathon - yup, the race webpage itself has one.  Very basic, only half or full marathons (some of these other sites offer 5ks and other distances too).  Still, nice and clean and easy.
• Marathon Guide - automatically comes up with the marathon distance (not surprising, considering the source) but also lets you enter individual distances, so you can make a band for a 10 mile or 30 mile race, or whatever distance you need.

And then, if you're looking for something different and don't mind spending a little, there are temporary tattoos!  PaceTat is the main site for those.  They come at a marathon distance, and then you can trim it down to the distance you need.  I haven't tried these personally, but they're reported to be very durable.

Silly thing is, I didn't use one on this last race, and (as I mentioned yesterday) I still PRed.  I would still prefer to run with a band, and I don't think this was one of those "stop worrying about dropping time and then you will relax and thus drop time" cases. I didn't make a race band this time because I was seriously unsure of what I would be aiming for time-wise!  Hadn't done many long runs, so really didn't know what pace would be comfortable or how out of shape I truly was.  Hard to plan a goal time that way.  Next time though, will be printing up one of these for myself!

Back in the Saddle

Or at least, back on the road.  Back in December was my first long race in a very long while, the Jingle Bun Run half marathon.  Last time I ran a half marathon was before we moved to Texas, so over a year and a half previously - yikes! And as life settles down, I'm needing my Big Race Motivation again.  This is a local half, so not too expensive.  A good way to get back on the horse, right?

So why am I writing about it now?  Because my race shirt finally came in the mail!

I had done race day registration, since up until the last I wasn't quite sure that I'd feel up to it.  Texas weather bounces around something crazy, and it tends to make my knee ache.  No need to be running 13 miles when I'm hobbling about.  But, with this being a tiny local race, they had race day registration, so I could make my decision as late as possible.  That also meant that they were out of my size shirt on race day, so mine had to be mailed to me.  But it came!


Mom always laughs that I take wonderful race pictures.  I have to say, mile 11 in a half marathon does seem to work well for me.  Mile 13, a little rougher :)  Still, I could see my time and could see the finish line, so the big grin is very genuine!

  

We totally lucked out with the weather for the race, too.  60, overcast, lightly misting at times... perfect for running 2+ hours!  The following week was sunny (and Texas KNOWS sunny) and about 10 degrees warmer.  I definitely don't think I'd have done nearly as well with weather like that!

 

Another bonus to this race was that the race photos were free!  The photo company took the pictures and then uploaded them to a set on Flickr.  Maybe because it was a relatively small race, or maybe because it was the Christmas season, but the photos weren't barred or blocked or whatever, so any of the runners could download pictures in which they spotted themselves!  Flip side to free pictures meant that you had to look yourself up (they tagged race numbers in the pictures, but didn't match them to names) and they were only at one point on the course, plus start and finish.  But those are VERY small prices to have free race pictures!  Thank you PhotoWolfe!

And the most exciting thing about this race (and why I'm so excited to have the shirt to wear and brag) is that I dropped TONS of time!  About 9 minutes, in fact!  So, a race that I wasn't sure I'd even feel up to running, was one where I dropped tons of time!!  The course was twice around a loop course.  I had never done a race like that, and was worried that it would make the race seem longer, kinda a "Oh, we're only here" sort of feeling.  I think it went quicker mentally though, because I knew what was coming, knew how much further I needed to go.  Broke a long race into smaller mental pieces, I guess.  So great weather, quick-feeling course... whatever the reason though, I had a great race!

A final silly side note, I did prepare a costume for this race.  I've run short races (5Ks) in costume, but this was the first long race I'd considered it!  Just a small one (see below): bunny ears in a Santa hat, plus a bunny tail!  Being a bunny person, every time I saw "Jingle Bun," I thought "bunnies."  It comes, of course, from the sponsor (Schlotzky's), meaning sandwich buns!  Anyway, I figured I'd be a Jingle Bun!  Just cut slits in a cheap Santa hat to feed the ears of a bunny headband through.  I ended up not wearing them, though they were waiting in the car for me.  It was kinda misty and felt almost muggy once we got underway and started warming up, and I didn't want a bedraggled bunny tail.  Still wore my striped knee socks (toe socks!) though.  :)  Next year I'll be a Jingle Bun, maybe!

 

Suprise!!

This is just a quick little post about a tiny little race, but I'm very excited about it and had to share. 

The race this morning was one of the free 5Ks that MWR hosts on base.  I was actually pretty excited about it.  The weather was gorgeous.  We'd had an unexpected cool front move through, so it was about 60 degrees, a bit cooler than usual for this time of year in TX.  60 degrees, sunny, light breeze - really couldn't ask for better conditions.  And running felt great - strong, powerful, comfortable.  How running is supposed to feel!

So, I run my race, and am chatting with Zach and a friend at the end of the race, and all 3 of us had run really good races.  His friend and I had both run PRs, and Zach had comfortably beaten his goal time (his PR was way back in high school and was crazy-fast).  I had dropped so much time off my old PR (which was, by the way, about 5 years old, but I hadn't run close to that in ages) that I was wondering if I'd set my watch wrong.  I go by my wristwatch on these races, as (being free) there aren't the big time clocks around the course and no chip-timing, so my own stopwatch is usually my most accurate time.  Hearing that the guys had both had unexpectedly great runs too, I was wondering if the course had been mis-measured.  You know, 3 miles instead of 3.1.  I simply felt too good to have been that much faster than usual!

So, we got home, pulled up LogYourRun and mapped out the course.  No, it really was a full 5K!  I had just dropped almost a minute and a half from my best time!  Apparently running in an area in almost perfect weather, without high winds and absurd dryness, will make a difference. No, I don't miss the desert! 

And my new PR makes me feel like a Runner!  I ran 26:47, which is about a 8:38 pace.  My old PR was 28:00, which is a 9:00 minute pace.  I seem to hang out around the 10:00 pace a lot, which isn't anything to sneeze at, but can be considered more of a Jog than a Run.  But now, my PR pace is under 9 minutes!  That would be right about a 2 hr half-marathon!  That's getting into Real Runner territory!!  I've been bouncing off the walls all day thinking about it.  So proud of myself  :)

And really, how often do you run a race so well, surprise yourself so solidly that you're more likely to believe that the course is inaccurate than that you ran so fast?

Sisterly Bonding (and she doesn't even hate me afterwards!)

So, part of the reason I was incommunicado recently, besides the work around the house and the starting of a new job and everything else that was keeping me busy, was that Anne was able to come out and visit for a week!  Huzzah!  Fun fun times abound!  Both of us recognized that we need to have more friends to just play with.  It's so much harder for adults to meet people, you know?  In high school, there are clubs and sports teams, and in college you have dorm life as well.  And throughout school, there are people in your classes that you get to know as well.  Once you're out of school, there's work, and... work.  You have to make an extra effort if you're going to find people to work out with or go to the movies with or have a board game night, or whatever.  So, it was greatly appreciated when a playmate came out here to TX!

Anyhoo, while she was here, there was a 5K on post which Zach and I wanted to run - the oh-so-appropriately named Hotter than Hades 5K.  We gave her the choice of running it (or walking it) or of sleeping in, and she took us up on the offer!  It helped, I'm sure, that the races on post are free ;)

So, we all woke up nice and early last Saturday and went over for a nice jog around post.  First 5K race I've done in MONTHS!  The ones back in CA weren't exactly well-advertised, so I missed some by just not hearing about them; and there were a few that I just couldn't do because of scheduling.  So I was greatly looking forward to the one here, something to hopefully get my lazy butt back in gear.

Here she is at the starting line, still looking very chipper.

 

So how did the race go?  Not too badly, considering I'm trying to get back in shape still!  Getting extended in the desert (that extra 6 months was a motivation killer) and having one of my workout buddies move and another get injured... well, my workout motivation thermometer dropped below freezing.  Now that we're in a new area, I'm trying to get back into a routine, but with my work hours bouncing around with trainings, and this horrible never-ending heat wave, I'm finding it a challenge.  So, a nice easy 5K was needed.  It was indeed Hotter than Hades, but was also held early enough that we could finish before it became too beastly. I was slower than usual, to be expected after 7 months of laziness, but I wasn't a total wreck either.  So, still have some muscles there under the lazy layer?  Let's try and get them going again!

And for Anne?  She survived!  Her first 5K successfully completed, no knees blown, no EMS called at the side of the road, and hey - she can still smile at the end of it!  She hung with me through the first 2 miles or so, and then had to do a bit more walking than running.  Still, not bad for her first 5K!  We made sure to take a bunch of pictures so she could go back home and show her workout buddies that she really did run a race.  She didn't they'd believe her otherwise, as she is definitely not a Runner :)

   

And as a side note, I'm wearing one of my favorite running shirts - a running donut, with the caption "1 Glazed Donut = 6 Miles" - a Target clearance find, actually.  Get compliments on it though! "I'm sweatin' sprinkles!"  Silly donut :)  We both laughed too, wearing our bright pink shirts together.  Made us a little easier to find, but we had to chuckle at how we turn the same color as our shirts as we workout.  Have always turned bright pink when I workout, and now I'm that color from the top of my head on down!  As one of my favorite workout quotes runs, "If you still look good at the end of a workout, you're not doing it right!"

Vegas Races #2: The Rock & Roll Vegas 1/2 Marathon

I ran the Strip!  

And it was a HUGE race!  They announced that there were nearly 30,000 runners between the two races (the half and the full), and looking at the results later, there were over 19,000 finishers in the half alone!  As you can see, there were tons of us!  I started way back in corral 25, and we weren't even the last corral - there were 32 altogether!

 

If you couldn't see, in the right hand picture above is a Pace Rabbit.  Fun!  The back of his shirt says "Follow Me" and in the two circles below it says "Run 10, Walk 1" (the run-walk pace he'd maintain).  Written on the inside of his ears is 2:30, his pacing time.  And I was so distracted by his ears, I didn't even notice the tail at his water bottle until I was looking at the picture later on my camera!

The race itself, in terms of running, was actually a pretty good one for me.  I'd had the Head Cold That Wouldn't Die through a lot of November, so was a little worried at how I'd hold up for this race, when I had only had one real long run since Long Beach in October.  I did OK though. It wasn't a PR race, but I was only about 8 minutes off my PR, so I was pleased with that (in a 2 1/2 hour race, 8 minutes isn't as much as it seems!)  So apparently a good training plan for me was to train for a big race in October, "taper" in November (i.e. get sick for a month), then race in December again.  Seemed to work!  Most importantly, though, I kept my pace steady through the whole race, and wasn't feeling like death warmed over when I finished - both I consider very important achievements!

 

The course was a good one. For the half marathon, the course ran up the Strip from Mandalay Bay, looped through Downtown, and then back down the Strip back to Mandalay Bay again.  The two pictures below are from the part of the course in Downtown (yes, that is a building shaped like a glass of beer).  First time I'd been in Old Vegas, actually!  Besides being nice and flat, I liked the course because you could see the landmarks easily.  So, as you got closer to the finish line at Mandalay Bay, you could see yourself get closer to New York, New York, the Luxor, etc.  It was a nice, visible sign of the miles passing.  The busy-ness of Las Vegas, which is so distracting when you're driving, really helped the miles pass too. You could appreciate all the crazy casino buildings, all the flashing lights and billboards, etc. and it helped distract you from the fact you'd been running for 2 hours at that point!

 

I couldn't have asked for better weather, either.  It WAS a little on the chilly side, I will admit, as we were waiting around for the starting line.  And I did wait as long as possible to check my gear (and my sweatshirt) before starting the race.  But we weren't moving then, and the sun wasn't really up yet, so it was understandable.  Once we got moving, thought, it was perfect.  No real breeze, just a little air moving; not too glaringly sunny; and just cold enough that you felt comfortable as you ran.  I do like cooler races like this compared to summer ones!  My 1/2 Marathon PR was a March race, come to think of it!

 

And I have to say, I'm getting better at taking pictures while I run these races!  :)  Since I take regular walk breaks on most of these races, I've been using those to grab some pictures.  The camera is all pulled out and ready to go as I'm still running along, then as I slow for my walk break, I pause, take my picture, and then keep walking.  It works out pretty well, too.  I try to be good about going off to the side when I start a walk break, so people don't run over me, and that makes it very easy to pause and take a 2 second picture, without adding tons of time to the race.  And it's not like the pauses are extra stops in my run, either.  I have to slow to a walk anyways when I grab water or a gel - I'm just not that coordinated to do it as I run without spilling on myself or dropping everything.  So I take my picture, grab my water, and then my minute walk break is up and I'm back to running.  Perfect!

 

The Rock and Roll series of races always pays a lot of attention to the music on the course (the whole gimmick of "Rock and Roll," right?).  There are always local bands spread throughout the race courses.  My favorite band this race was the one at the very beginning, a Blues Brothers cover band. "You make me wanna Shout" and similar songs - perfect music to get you pumped up before a run.  Just so upbeat and happy!

And of course, being Vegas, there are the Vegas-only touches to the race.  There was the Run-Through Wedding at the Venetian, for example.  Yes, it's legal, and there were a bunch of people getting hitched or renewing vows.  And of course their running gear reflected their happy occasion.  I saw one bride-groom set with Mickey Mouse ears on their headgear, but they were too far away to get a picture :(

Another Vegas touch was the large number of Running Elvi (the plural of Elvis, if you didn't know).  Here are just 2 of many pictured below.  I think they said that Vegas boasts the largest number of Running Elvi of any of the races.  I do know they had a special reception for all of those decked out as Elvis, though!

One of the things that was uniquely Vegas, too, was the number of billboards for the race.  I've done R&R races in 3 other cities now (Virginia Beach 3 times, San Diego once, and the Phoenix-Scottsdale-Tempe area once).  And yes, there is a lot of advertisement of the race in the other towns, but Vegas is designed for flashy, noticeable ads - a major feature of the Strip area, really.  And with this race, there were several billboards that were for us!  First time I'd ever been on a billboard :)  The billboard on the upper left is from the starting line area, and the one below it is the electronic view of the race.  The Mandalay Bay board was showing the news coverage of the race, so as we waiting in a later corral, we could watch the runners ahead of us setting out.  Pretty neat!  The other two boards (the electronic ones) are from Bally's and Planet Hollywood along the strip.  Those two each had several screens with messages for the runners that they'd scroll through.  I'm just glad I got clear shots of each!

 

A final Vegas touch to the race was at the exit from the finishers area (where you head out to get your checked gear and meet up with family and friends).  There were showgirls there to pose with us.  The camera person on my lane was nice enough to grab a quick shot with my own camera too, which I'm very thankful for!  The showgirls cracked me up, though, because to stay warm in spite of their costumes, they were all wearing warm boots.  Very sensible, I know, but it made smile to see a row of women decked out in feathers, silver, sequins... and Uggs.  :)

And of course, I had to get a picture with my medal and number and the Vegas sign.  Thankfully, the sign was located between the finish line area and our hotel (we stayed south of the Strip).  Meant that I didn't have to walk out of my way to get my picture!  Little things that tired legs appreciate :)

Oh, and if you want to see them, here is the link to my official photographs.  And yes, my good-picture-luck at mile 11 holds steady, Mom, though there is another picture in my batch where I blinked :)