race weekend

Ohmygosh yesterday was the best day ever! I'll give you some background information. It kind of starts last year.

Last year one of my bffs, Jan, had wanted to run her first marathon here in Southern Oregon. There was one just over the hill from us but since there were so many fires in the state throughout the summer the smoke was so thick and air quality terrible. So, the marathon was moved further out timewise and she picked another marathon in Eugene, OR. I think that was mid-September. I had been starting to want to run myself but not quite there. But, that was the first race that I ran in between walking, and it wasn't horrid. ha!

Slowly over the past year I've been building up my mileage. I picked a training plan for a 10K, which is 6.2 miles. Honestly, it's been hard!  But, thank God, I've been able to do it. My body is slow, but it does run and recover. It's been amazing.  So, that bring us to yesterday. It was the Providence Marathon in Medford and I did the 10K race - and ran the entire time!!!

The morning started super early - Jan had to be at her shuttle to the starting line at 6 am. The shuttle for the half marathon and 10K started at 7 am. And it was super colllldddd! I think it was about 40 degrees. Brrr. Last winter/spring I discovered I have Reynaud's disorder, which for me manifests most painfully in my toes when I get cold. If my body is cold then the blood constricts to my toes and it feels like running on marbles or just plain numb. But! I bundle up and keep on :)

Here I am at the starting line for the 10K

 The farthest I had run prior to the race was 5.6 miles. And, that last half mile has been a struggle! Oh man. I was so nervous going into this race....could I do it? Would I need to stop and walk? I tried to remind myself that I would not suddenly forget how to run - and just trust the training.

For the most part, the run felt pretty good! I started out too quickly I think - nerves and excitement. I tried to rein myself in so that I would have the continued energy for the full 6 miles. After the 5 mile point, I realized I was doing it and it felt amazing. The finish line was a straightaway after a slight hill so it was nice to be able to run across feeling strong.

Jan's daughter also ran the 10K race, and she was waiting for me at the finish line which was cool! After that, we trolled around the finish line area to see if there were snacks and swag. We were both looking forward to chocolate milk but no such luck. Boo! But, we were consoled by sugary donuts :)

Our friend Meghan ran the half marathon, 13.1 miles and got a personal record (PR) of 1:53:55! Her first half marathon under 2 hours.

After that, it was waiting for Jan to come in. A couple other friends made it in time to see her cross the finish line in 4:02:45 - 8 minutes faster than her first marathon! Not only was her time impressive, but just knowing how hard it was for her to get there - she coaches volleyball, has a full time job and a family in addition to the multiple hours of training week after week. 

Below is the breakdown of my mileage, in what's referred to as "splits". Mine is a bit lopsided - the quicker times at the beginning instead of the end. It's no biggie to me, but it's interesting information.  

This was my official race finishing time: 

 Oh! and! There just happened to be a little thing called Fiber Mania at the same fairgrounds that the race ended at! Woot! I picked up this beautiful yarn:

We had a delicious lunch and some fro-yo and then drove home. Even the drive home was fantastic - the pass is mostly evergreens but interspersed there are vibrant fall colored trees - so vivid and colorful. It was a treat.

A cross stitch project bag

So, I made a thing last weekend. I did post about it on Instagram, but... felt I had a little more to say about it than what would fit, or hold attention in a little caption. Which is kind of how I decided I needed to start the ol' blog up again. 😊

I started a cross stitch pattern 3 years ago! That has just been patiently waiting for me to want to stitch again. Which I have. The pattern is from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery called The Storytime Sampler. Each little frame is a different storybook character. 

A few weeks ago I visited my Mom and we were sorting through fabric together. She gave me a TON of fun fabric prints. One was a navy floral that sort of reminds me of a liberty print and I knew I wanted a project bag out of it. Then, last weekend I was watching YouTube videos of cross stitching, and I think there was a link or something to a tutorial by Kea Bee for a zippered pouch with a vinyl pocket. I have been wanting to make something similar for awhile so I took it as a sign that I needed to sew it up right then! First, I did make a quick Joanns trip to purchase vinyl 😏 Cuz I have a whole lot in my stash, but not that!

I only changed a couple of things. One was the size. I wanted mine to be able to hold my whole project including the q-snap frame. That was an easy adjustment! I have a 12.5 square template ruler so I used that for dimensions. 

I'm not sure exactly how to show the next thing? Since the zipper is sewn on top of the bag, it could leave a raw edge on the underside. I just really don't like raw edges so I folded the fabric around the batting for the top part of the front of the bag.

Then I quilted straight lines. I sewed the folded edge to the zipper. The raw edge sides get enclosed when the bag is sewn together and the binding added. For binding, I just used leftovers from my jar o binding.

If raw edges don't bother you, that step is unnecessary. It did make it slightly easier to keep ahold of while sewing to the zipper. One thing I might add to another bag if I make one would be a carry handle at the top. No biggie though since I'm not transporting this around. If I was that would be handy! Ha ha! See what I did there? "Handy" get it? A handle....

Anyways! Here it is empty. There really are so many ideas you could do with this simple bag - add ribbon, different dimensions of vinyl, coordinating fabric instead of all the same. 

no pictures, just chat

Yikes! I've been away from this space for a long time! Mostly, I've had some technical difficulties. And a bit of what do I have to say? Is anyone even reading this? But! I think it's just like whatever. If no one is reading it, that's fine. If anyone does, that's cool too.

So, what have I been up to lately? or, in the past 6 months or so? ha! Lots. And also nothing new. Kind of the biggest thing that I sort of talked about like 2-3 posts ago was losing weight. I've lost a lot of weight. I'm not going to put out there the exact amount. Mostly because if you're anything like me, you'll start to try and calculate what the beginning total was and I'm just not ready for that to be "out there". But, it's a lot. And I feel really good. I started the journey with an idea in my mind of a number, but also just a feeling for a goal. I made my goal and now I'm where I consider maintenance. Technically I have lost a little more and if more comes off I'll be happy with that too. 

I'm tracking food, drink, exercise and water on MyFitnessPal, which is an app on my phone. It's really helpful.

One thing that I really wanted to do from the beginning of this journey is start running. Years ago, I had a dream where I was running. Not running from anything, not a stressful running dream - like a nice peaceful enjoyable running dream. I've held onto that as a sort of goal. I knew I'd need to lose weight to get there, so that was another facet of why I wanted to lose weight. Anyways! I did start running. I won't say it was easy, because oy vey it was not!

I ran my first 5k in January and after that I was sort of like, what now? But since I had built up to running a continuous 3.1 miles I did not want to lose my conditioning so I've continued.   Some days are still a struggle - like today. Oh man, I hate, hate running in the wind. Like super hate it. But, when it's sunny and Tuesday I just want to get outside. So, I pushed through a 2 mile lunchtime run today. 

I've been mulling over goals now at this point. Like, what are they? what is my new dream? I really have no interest whatsoever of running a marathon. And kind of no interest in a half. I'm still pretty slow - running about a 12 minute mile most days. So, I sort of want to focus on getting faster or maybe adding strength to get more distance in.

Sorry if this is all lame and boring. But, it is what's on my mind right now.

I have still been knitting and sewing. Nothing changed there. It's finally getting warm and Spring-y so I have also started getting out in the yard to weed and plant and plan.  Oh, I also picked the cross stitch project that I started like 3 years ago back up. So that's exciting, right? baha! Oh! and I'm also reading The Fellowship of the Ring. After my husband died I just did not have focus to read anymore. Which is a super bummer because I really used to love reading. So, getting to where I read a couple pages a night and retain the info is encouraging.