Hartford Marathon Weekend : Spectator Style

Good Morning!

What a weekend I had over here at RAR.

Saturday, I woke up, had a nice breakfast in Chester, walked around town with the dog, grabbed an ice coffee and drove up to Hartford to watch my uncle run his first marathon, the ING Hartford Marathon in Hartford, CT.  

It was such a beautiful day for a marathon;

 sunny, a nice cool breeze, warm, no threats of rain.

As a spectator, I thought the race was well organized.   Signs everywhere, tents and vendors everywhere, really thought out and laid out in a way that made sense

My uncles ONE complaint was that they did not have any people directing and answering questions before the race.  

The marathon website was REALLY helpful and was really spectator friendly.  There were course maps up,  link after link about road closures with maps and times, a whole page dedicated to spectators with information like the best place to watch runners, etc.  I was really fortunate for all of this information.  

The best part?

They even supplied a tracking program so you could punch in your runners number and follow them along the course-  perfect for the cheer leading squad- AKA Olive and I.  The problem?  They had the wrong runner in for his number and showed his pace as 5:20 minute miles.  Now I am pretty sure his pace was between 9:3- and 10:00 so there is no way that was him.  An hour into the race it was back to his number and I was able to find him on the course. 

I was really impressed with the organization and overall vibe of the race.  There were cheering fans EVERYWHERE.  They had over 30 different forms of live music around the course, lots of water and gatorade stations- and my uncle even reported a CANDY station at mile 22.  There was also a really well marked reunion area that made it easier to find your runner in the crowds after the race. 

I drove to mile 18 to surprise my uncle and play cheer leader.  I knew he would fly by the first part of the race, and the second part would be the more challenging piece    He looked really surprised and grateful to see Olive and I at mile 18 flapping our arms and cheering and screaming.  It is the little things that really give you the extra OOPMH and I think he was really appreciative of the support.

After Olive and I cheered him on, I drove back to the finish line where I met up with my aunt and cousins.  They were anxiously waiting at the finish lines with noise makers and a "GO DAD GO"  sign.  

It was adorable.

         

The finish line was in Bushnell Park under this beautiful brick archway.   Blue skies cow bells, and lots of screaming included. 

Waiting at that finish line, I turned into a slight emotional wreck.   If you want to feel inspired, go stand at the finish line of a marathon.  The people cheering, the signs, the screaming, and of course, the runners.  Every shape and size, every age was crossing that finish line.  Sure, it is absolutely amazing elite marathoners run that race in under 3 hours, but its the average Joe that really gets me teary eyed.

Some people were crossing that finish line holding the hand of their partner/friend/sibling.  Some people crossed that line alone.  Some people were crossing that line in tears.  I don't think they were tears like "OMG I AM GOING TO DIE"  I think they were more like  "OMG I JUST RAN A MARATHON".

It was such an amazing and inspiring experience to stand at that finish line for 45 minutes, cheering and watching.  Marathoners are truly amazing people.  Congratulations to all of the runners at Hartford this weekend.  

You all rock. 

 After the finish we hung out for a little bit. 

Olive met a kitty she really liked at first, 

until she saw its face and became COMPLETELY terrified.  

         

Olive and I had a great day watching the Hartford Marathon.  It even inspired me to sign up for another race, a half marathon, 12 hours before the race started.

Newport Half Marathon - Half number six- recap to follow!

you know... because I said Hogsback was my last half..... two weeks ago ;) 

Half Marathon: The Stats

Good Morning World Wide Web

Let me start by saying I went to both Tuesday and Thursday group runs at 6:30 this week. 

 A small success in the eyes of many. 

 Big success in mine.

Can I get a WHAT WHAT.

I was also super late for work and ended up drinking my Iced Coffee in the shower.... People do this right? I am not the only one?

Not sure how this saves any time, but it made sense at the time 

Tuesday's three miler felt great and today's four miler didn't feel too shabby.    And it turned out to be a hilly (and dark) run that I was miserably over dressed for.  I went from shorts and a t shirt Tuesday to fleece lined LuLu pants long sleeve and gloves Thursday.  Brain function is low at 6:00 am.  

Seven miles this week.... watch out elite runners... I am coming for you.   Speaking of super awesome runners, my uncle is running his first marathon SATURDAY!  The Hartford Marathon.  I am super excited for him, yet I am really jealous/envious and bitter.  You can read about my marathon training fail/injury here.  I am going to tuck my bitterness away for now and remind myself I will get my own marathon... one day. The guy is amazing and has run a few halfs  while PUSHING KIDS in a team.

"  The New Bedford Half partners up with the Schwartz Center, a Dartmouth-based school for the developmentally disabled. Nine children from the school, ranging in age from 2-year-old Molly Menard to 18-year-old Trey Rivet, will be lining up to race alongside all of the other runners Sunday.

In partnership with Citizens-Union Savings Bank, the center assembled 80 volunteers from the community to push the children around the course in jogging carriages."

Read more about it HERE

We can no longer complain during our 13.1's.  

Sunday two of my good friends - two members of the neon running crew (Vanessa and Chelsea)  are running their FIRST Half Marathon-  the Newport Half Marathon.   Two girls that had never run more than 6 or 7 miles are after their 13.1  I am so excited for these two and am hoping to make it to Newport to watch them and play cheerleader (big signs and black dog included).  When I met them for our run this morning they were wearing their ADORABLE purple and green matching outfits to try them out for race day-  What cuties!  I highly recommended and pleaded that they try their new outfits before their race so this made me happy. 

It is really fun to watch your friends and family develop into Marathoners and Half Marathoners.  

Girls, welcome to the club of the (only) Half Crazy Runners.   Because the ranks are growing quickly,  I figured it would be super fun to share some statistics about the increase in half marathon runners.  If you don't think you can do it, maybe these stats will help motivate you- because guess what- You Sure Can. 

All of the following information was obtained from RunningUSA.org  

You can find the full article HERE

Last year, U.S. half-marathons had an estimated 1.85 million finishers (a new high), an impressive 14.9% increase from 2011 (1,610,000 to 1,850,000), but lower than the historic 24% rise in both 2009 and 2010. Also, in the same 1,136 U.S. half-marathons for 2011 vs. 2012, there was a 5.1% finisher increase (1,522,637 vs. 1,599,838).

More half-marathon fun facts

• Since 2003, the half-marathon has been the fastest growing road race distance in the United States, and for seven consecutive years (2006-12), the number of 13.1 mile finishers has grown by 10% or more each year. No other U.S. road distance comes close to this growth rate during the Second Running Boom (circa 1994).
• Since 2000, the number of half-marathon finishers in this country has nearly quadrupled (482,000 to 1,850,000), an impressive increase of 284%.
• For the first time in history, 60% of U.S. half-marathon finishers were females (approximately 1,110,000, a record). ( YEAH LADIES! )
• Although the male U.S. half-marathon percent has declined to 40%, in absolute terms, last year, there were a record 740,000 male finishers in U.S. 13.1 mile races.
• Also, in 2012, there were a record number of 36 U.S. half-marathons with 10,000 or more finishers. This data point has more than doubled since 2009 when there were 17 with 10,000-plus finishers; in 2000, there was only one.
• For the year, there were a total of 43 half-marathons that make up the Top 100 U.S. timed road race list for 2012 with 16 of them from the nationwide Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series.
• Like the past 6 years, there were more than 30 inaugural half-marathons in the U.S. last year and the largest debut half was Rock 'n' Roll Portland (OR) with 11,038 finishers. Overall, there were six debut 
  half-marathons with more than 5,000 finishers (also, Tinkerbell, Rock 'n' Roll St. Pete, Hollywood, Rock 'n' Roll Pasadena and San Diego), a record (previous record was four in 2010).
• Last year, there were more than 1,500 active U.S. half-marathons (final road race numbers to be released in an upcoming State of the Sport Report).

According to Running USA's 2013 National Runner Survey, the half-marathon is also the favorite distance to run for both genders (38% men and 43% women) and overwhelmingly, the road race distance that runners (77% overall) are most interested in entering this year (2013), so the half-marathon should maintain its title as the most popular distance in America.

Trash to Treasure: Chevron End Tables

Sometimes my life is all over the place.  

A little of this, a little of that, here there and everywhere.  

Well, I like my blog to resemble my eclectic crazy life.  

And I think it does. 

Today I want to share with you one of my dirty little secrets. 

 I love love love old junky furniture.  

The scratched up pieces, drawers full of bubble gum, stopped at goodwill, picked off of someones curb kind of junky pieces.  If you know me you know there is a little thrift shop I stalk frequent and continually shop at.  I tell people "Oh you know... the one by the on ramp with all that useless crap sitting out there in the rain" and they automatically know what place I am talking about.   I love that place... Sometimes it is all garbage and sometimes I find treasures.  I never pay more than 20 dollars for a piece, and usually its under 10.    It's only open a few hours a day but when it is closed, you can take any of the furniture outside and just slip the cash under the door.   

Such character.   And trust.

(One time I left a little less than the tag said because I didn't thing it was worth the tag price and there was no one there to haggle with)  

SHH....Don't tell. 

I like to think I have an eye for unique older furniture and their potential, 

but really I am probably just a hoarder.  

Or at least my dad thinks so.

My love for refabbing furniture started when I was getting ready to leave the nest.   I was moving out of my parents house and into my first rental.  A 3 bedroom 1800's farmhouse in Essex CT.  It was the cutest little old farm house, on an acre, and completely unfurnished.  I could not afford to shop at Ethan Allen, and refused to settle for junk at Ikea.  I wanted solid wood with the price tag of the fake stuff.  So what did I do?  Started yardsailing, stalking craigslist, visiting thiftshops, and visiting curb alerts.  

Redoing furniture takes a lot of trial and error, and even more patience (something I need a lot more of).  I am already in my second rental now, and have a lot of refabbed furniture to show for.  Eventually I will make a page of all of my before and afters.  You know, just to add to the randomness of this blog.  But for now, I want to share my favorite makeover of lately.

I introduce to you:  

The $6 Goodwill laminate wood end tables.

But you just said you hate fake wood?  

Yeah yeah yeah.

But I loved the shape... and that they matched... and how light they were.

I can't tell you HOW MANY TIMES people drive past me watching me trying to shove solid wood furniture from the curb into my car. 
 Alone. 

Folks, if you drive past a struggling brunette trying to load someone else's crap into their Nissan Armada, stop and offer her a hand.  

Despite the fact that it was laminate, I was so excited to have two of something, a matching set, 

and I saw some potential in these cuties.  I wasn't looking for end tables.  I wasn't looking for anything in particular.  I just wanted more STUFF to refinish.  I guess I am a hoarder.

I saw these beauties and instantly thought.   

WHITE END TABLES WITH A CHEVRON PRINT ON TOP.  

Bam.  Just like that.  

I learned a REALLY valuable lesson with these end tables.  I never buy laminate and had never worked with it before.  Just treat it like wood I thought.  Well, I can't really sand it so I am just going to slather some paint on it and call it a day.

Putting on the first coat I realized... this paint is not sticking.  Lightbulb:  Suffer through this and once I get on the first coat, I will paint on a second coat that will stick to the first coat and everything will be perfect.   WRONG.  The second coat stuck to the first coat, and peeled off in unison.  

Why-why why why do I not do my research first.  Why am I so impatient'?  The cardinal rule in painting is PRIMER-  and when it comes to laminate furniture, there are no exceptions.  Now I had to put in another days work just to get it back to its original state:  I had to sand and clean both tables until all of the first paint fail was gone.  

What felt like years later, I had the first coat off, and two coats of primer on.  I did a happy dance around the apartment and marveled at my little tables.  

I ended up painting then inside because I am lazy.  If you are as lazy as me and want to paint while watching Love It Or List It, go to the dollar store and get the dollar plastic curtains to use as a drip cloth under your furniture- much easier than resorting to cardbox boxes and dog food bags.  

I let the primer dry about 2 hours in between coats-  The windows were all open and the air was cool and crisp allowing these suckers for a quick dry and speedy recovery.

Once I got my two layers of primer on, I put on 3 thin layers of white paint.  Yes that is five layers total, I never wanted to see that ugly black laminate ever again.  

I let these coats dry over night and throughout the day in between coats.  When everything was high and dry, I worked on the pattern. 

If you ever want to feel really stupid, spend some time trying to get an even chevron design on a table top with only a home depot paint mixing stick, a pencil, and some tape.  If I was smarter, I would have done the math, gotten a ruler, and sketched it out to perfection.  After a lot of tape and a few curse words I had a better idea.

I took tissue paper and folded it up to make evenly placed little boxes.  I then drew on my chevron pattern in the boxes (with my mock ruler aka paint stick)  and traced the pattern onto my table.  Once I had the pattern traced I taped some clean even(ish) lines onto my table top.  They aren't perfect but good enough for the first go around.  If you ask me how long this took I am far to embarrassed to admit that and will take that to the grave with me.  

I used 3 coats of Martha Stewarts textured grey paint to paint my chevrons on the table.  I really love the textured thick look of the paint and used a brush and a foam brush to apply the paint.  I used LIVELOVEDIY's little trick and instead of washing out my paintbrush between coats, I stuck it in a ziplock baggie and into the fridge- worked like a charm.  Check out her blog for other life saving painting tips.

After many many hours and many hard lessons learned,
 I finally had one finished.  

And then I had two finished.  

I used a sealing/cover/glossy/enamel spray painty stuff to seal my design and protect the table top from nicks, stains, and anything else it may encounter in its new life as a reborn again end table.  

Don't they look absolutely adorable? 

 The height is a little low for an end table for the couch but I don't care, I am too in love to be bothered by the fact that it's a little vertically challenged.   Pop of pink, and some aqua to match my bar cart (wait for it.. that's another post). 

They are even Kitty Approved. 

I can't wait to share some of my other stuff with you, and thanks for sticking with me through this completely non running related post.

Happy Painting!

Katie 

Fall in New England

Sometimes I like to pretend I am a photographer.  Like most hobbies, practice makes perfect.  And I love to practice with my Nikon DSLR 3100.  I am a very amateur photographer, and took a  film photography class using my fathers old film Cannon SLR.  It was his wedding gift many many moons ago.  It was old yet worked wonderfully and I took many wonderful pictures on that good ole Cannon.  I also learned how to develop film and all of my own pictures in a dark room.

In college I took a digital photography class and dove into the world of digital SLR and editing.  Despite these classes, I still get stuck in AUTO AUTO AUTO mode and forget to put on my big girl pants and shoot manually.

I am starting to get braver, even taking my camera off auto focus and into the manual settings, also playing around with black and white.  I could really use a refresher into my old photography books, but for now, I will stick with trial and error.    This weekend during my R&R on Block I decided to do some practicing.  I kind of apologize (not really shes the cutest) for the 10000 pictures of my dog.  She is my model/subject and as you can see.... she just loves the camera.

Here are some of the pictures I took on my many walks with Olive around Chester, CT and Block Island, RI.  If you are not in New England for the fall, I am so very sorry!  Changing leaves, pumpkin everything, mums, apple picking, sweaters and boots- the best place to be.  Grab a cup of coffee (preferably pumpkin flavor)  and soak in the New England Autumn!