One Half Marathon Down, Countless to go...

Since I last wrote I finished my first half marathon for my longest run ever. For non-runners, a half marathon is about 13.1 miles and my previous longest was about 12.5. It was in Stillwater on May 24 and it went really well. I've been fighting some knee injuries so I took it easy and a friend was willing to be slow with me and we both completed our first halves in just under 3 hours. Not a very good time but our goal was to finish and improving that time can be left to races in the future. I definitely want to do another one sometime. The weather was great and even though it was Stillwater, the hills weren't awful. At least I didn't think so but others were complaining about them. Stillwater is a hilly city though so I was prepared mentally and my friend and I decided to schedule our walk breaks around them as well so that helped a lot.

I raised almost $750 for the St. Bernard Project so that was also a great incentive to push through everything and complete the run. They use every penny they get very wisely and generously give so much to the residents of SBP that I was happy to be able to help them out in whichever small way I could.

I've been pretty lazy on the quilting. I have the whole front put together but need to add the borders and then do the actual quilting. I did a small machine project though and now I'm really not energized to do any more by hand. Eventually. I'm pretty excited by the success I've had with the machine project so I'm hoping to repeat that soon. I'll post pictures of those soon.

Oh and Twins- I'm now at .500 with 2 wins and 2 losses when I've been in attendance. I guess I can go again because that's better than their overall record although it is worse than their home record so maybe I should go sparingly...

More squares

The novelty of the quilting has kind of worn off because it's so hard to get my assignments done each week. Thankfully we have an extra week to work due to Memorial Day.

I'm also trying to keep up the running. With a bit of an injured knee I've had to ease off it. I was able to get a 12.5 mile run/walk in last week. That one was a huge victory because I hadn't even really planned on it and I did all except the first 3.5 solo. I've never done that much by myself. This weekend is the Stillwater Half and that's my goal. I know I'll be really slow but I think I can do it as long as I have enough time.

Off to spin class!

Still quilting

I have a lot of quilting to get done and I'm not super speedy at it but it seems to be going ok so far. Here are pics of what I've done. The first one I did is actually in the middle. The first picture has obviously not been sewn yet but that's what I'm working on today.
I can't go anywhere anyway as my car is in the shop getting new shocks and struts. A pretty hefty priced makeover for Gus but it should be a lot smoother drive after it's done. Luckily the shop is only a block away so I'm able to just leave it there and walk home and then walk back to pick it up. They seem pretty trustworthy so not a bad neighbor to have.
It got a lot warmer here yesterday and today is actually nicer in my mind. I'm not a fan of the hot weather at all.
Ok back to the sewing...

Quilting

Quilting runs in the family so I figured I should join in when a friend also showed some interest. The two of us signed up for a hand quilting class which began last week. It was funny when we told another friend of ours who is pretty crafty. She really didn't believe that we were actually doing everything by hand. The conversation went something like this:
"A hand quilting class?"
"Yup"
"So you use your machine to put it together and then quilt it by hand"
"Nope, we do it all by hand"
"The quilting is all by hand but the piecing is with a machine"
"Nope, we do it all by hand"
"By all you mean the quilting"
"Nope, we mean everything"
"You're crazy"

I've done one block so far that had 21 pieces. There are quite a few flaws but I'm hoping that it gets better as we do more squares. We should finish a nine block sampler in the course which means doing one or two blocks per week. I've taken my time this week in getting one done so I'll have to work harder in the upcoming weeks.

The Twins are back in business but not performing all that well for the most part. Here's hoping that they get better as time goes on (like my sewing:) In the meantime, I'm loving Cleveland today. They absolutely killed the Yankees. It's pretty sad when the Yankees pitcher starts the game with a 28 ERA and it actually got worse! Cleveland started the year really slow so it's nice that they got into the groove at Yankee Stadium.

Baseball season!

The 2009 season is underway thankfully. Welcome back to the boys of summer. A group of 10 of us went to the opener the other night and even though the results were disappointing we had a ton of fun. I met one of my friends at City Hall prior to the game (she works there for Elections-her life has been a Franken/Coleman hell for a while now) so I have some pictures of the building which is quite cool.

Running has been going pretty well. We did Norwegian relays last night which help us get some speed work in but are a little challenging to explain in writing and most of you probably don't care. Tomorrow we have a 12 mile run which is my last long run before the Get in Gear Half Marathon on April 25. It will also be my longest run ever. I think my previous long run is more like 11 miles. Now I've got a Garmin so I'll be able to tell you exactly how far it is. We are running to the bunny, a big statue at the intersection of Portland Avenue and Minnehaha Parkway. Pretty appropriate for the day before Easter, eh?

More New Orleans

In the continuing theme of New Orleans, here's a photo of the beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde. It's an institution there and I'm afraid to hazard a guess as to how much powdered sugar they go through. It's definitely not the healthiest eating city but at least the walkability of the place helps out.

It was a lousy week for my training as I wasn't able to get my long run in on Sunday due to a pretty miserable cold. I couldn't work on Friday or Monday so my sofa and I spent way too much time together. My trip to Walgreens on Saturday morning had a ridiculous set of items: Zicam, Tylenol Cold, Dayquil, Puffs and Halls cough drops. I also rented two movies from the Red Box out front while I was there. Both were entertaining but not the best. Nights in Rodanthe with Richard Gere and Diane Lane and Cadillac Records with Beyonce. The music on that one was great. I think I need to download some more Etta James music.

It's only a few weeks to opening day which is cool. I was only able to get cheap seats tickets unfortunately. I have a feeling it will be the last opener I see since the new stadium is smaller and demand will be greater. I'm an odd case because while I know the specs/seating/etc at the Metrodome stink, I love that it has a roof. Minneapolis has great outdoor amenities and I like to enjoy them on a Sunday evening and by that I mean doing some sort of activity. If it's nice I want to be biking or running and I've used the Twins as a rainy evening activity numerous times. Therefore, I guess it will work out since tickets will be hard to come by and I'll want to go to less. Stinks that I'll miss an opener. If I've been in town I've been at the opener for the past 8 years. I only missed the two years I was in Tokyo.

I'm watching the Biggest Loser which is definitely an addiction. A bit melodramatic but overall very inspirational. A sobfest although right now I wish a different contestant would have been sent home. It's definitely a bit too staged these days though.

That's all for my random musings except for a list of movies. I had to name my five favorite movies on facebook so here they are:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Glory
It's a Wonderful Life
The Shawshank Redemption
Moulin Rouge

I think all are well worth viewing although Moulin is definitely lighthearted in comparison to the other four "heavy" dramas which is more my typical taste.

New Orleans

As I was setting up my webpage for fundraising for St Bernard I realized I had taken almost zero pictures on my trip there last November. I think I don't totally feel like a tourist there and instead feel fairly at home instead. However, I asked my friends if they had any so the one above is Erika, Mellisa and I in front of the home in St. Bernard Parish that we worked on while we were there.

I'm reading a book right now called Nine Lives by Dan Baum and I thought that with all the information I'd gathered about Katrina, nothing could shock me but this one definitely has at least one story that I can't shake. Baum was a writer for the New Yorker who relocated there after the storm and the book is a collection of nine stories that he gathered from interviews with residents there. It takes you from the 1960s up to present day but one story in particular of actions that a police officer took the day after the storm is particularly haunting. I'm not going to say more than that but I would strongly recommend the book even though I'm actually not quite done yet.

The weather has been warming up with the exception of last Thursday's snow storm. Today was great so a friend and I went on a short run by the river with no hats, gloves and I even wore a lighter shell than I have in months. Nice. It also is staying lighter longer and with daylight savings time next week's evening runs will be awesome!