Memorial Weekend

Had a great time on my knitting weekend!! Went for a great 5 mile run on the nicest golf course (Peek'n Peak) that was quite hilly, but fantastic with awesome views. Knitted at the pool and ate some fabulous food. Even got a tan, Yay!

Love this view!!

On the knitting front, made great progress on the wedding shawl and the asymmetrical (muti-shape) top is almost completed. If I didn't continue to screw it up it would have been done by now, but it's a learning experience.

Wedding shawl at the pool

The Girls!

No PR

So this morning my friend email me that her time for Cleveland has been changed, quickly I looked up my results and mine was changed too. Damn it!!! No PR 1:56:41. I had 1:56:43 on my watch but figured I didn't stop it as soon as I crossed the finish. I'm disappointed but it is only 1 minute right? One minute = no PR ;(

Cleveland Half - Race Report

Well Cleveland went retro this year!! Very cool, all the marketing had retro/vintage logos and the medal instead of being the typical blue and red had orange, bright green and yellow in it. It's adding a lot of pizazz to my medal wall for sure. Super Cool not to mention the famous spinning guitar! I can't believe i've done this race 4 times now!
That being said I thought it was awesome especially since i PR'd (yep 1:55) absolutely thrilled!!! (and on 4 hours of sleep cause i can't put that stupid asymmetrical cardigan down and was knitting till midnight and had to watch some SNL with Will Ferrell before i finally fell asleep at 12:30). That breaks down to an average pace of 8:50, with mile 10 and 13 at 8:35 which makes me super happy. Now if i could just do that for a full marathon!
As for the race itself, the weather was absolutely perfect 50s with clear skies, sun and some wind. Started downtown ran toward rock and roll hall of fame and then around the browns stadium then headed over the bridge toward west side of downtown and into lakewood then back to downtown on the highway by the lake. There were parts of the race (at least the half) that didn't even feel like you were in Cleveland but some much cooler place by the water :0). Reversing the route did make it a little more hilly instead of pretty much flat but i didn't mind. Good Race Cleveland, be back next year!


It was so nice that I hung around after to see all my friends finish! My throat is killing me today from cheering everyone on. It was really exciting watching the marathon finish, I was in awe of some of the finishers, amazing!

with Jolene at the start

with Karrie after half

Jolene and Karrie at the finish

Elaine (red shorts, black shirt) sprinting to the finish!

with Krissy after the full marathon

Cleveland Half

Sunday is the Cleveland Marathon, woo hoo!! I will be running the Half and I'm really excited for the new course. For the most part they just reversed the course but I think it's going to make a big difference and again will be nice and flat. I'm also excited for my two friends that are running the Full, they've trained a lot and I'm looking forward to see how they do. Good Luck Girls!!

Also, I will be changing the medal picture above on Monday. Three medals will be added. So the questions is should i continue to add medals (currently they are organized from first race to the latest race)? Should I take the 5K, 10K, 15K, 10 miler medals down and only have half marathons and full marathons on the rack?? Should I organize them by color or distance?? or keep ones that I've done more then once together?? So many possibilities, so little time!
The curtain rod that I'm using still can expand so i could keep it the way it is for a lot longer but is it too much??

Anyway, wish me luck on Sunday (last half marathon until September)! and Akron Marathon training starts on the 25th.

Asymmetrical Cardi

Picked up the new Vogue Knitting on Friday and am totally in love with this cardi!! I know what you're thinking, but YES would totally wear a shirt with it. Anyway already started it and so far have one sleeve and one circular part for one side. Really hope i can pull this one off cause it's so dang different and asymmetrical. Mine will be teal, pictures to come.

Back to Knitting

Here it is the baby sweater I've been working on it's from a Debbie Bliss book "Special Knits". It's an Ohio University sweater as both of the parents of the baby that this is going to went there. Overall, pretty quick knit except for the sewing part which took a little longer. But I'm happy with the end result. This is the best model I could find to show the finished item.

Also, made this quick hat for a good friend. Hope she likes it!The wedding shawl that I've been working on for the past month has been ripped out. Yep the entire thing, almost cried while doing it but I wasn't happy with it. Now I have to start over. Yuck!

Indy Mini Marathon Race Report

What a great day for a race! 46 degrees at the start, perfect running weather.
The Indy Mini Marathon has just become my favorite half (out of 18) of all time right behind Kentucky Derby Half. Also my time was my 2nd best 1:58:09 (9:02 pace).
It was just the perfect race from start to finish, I loved it!

First and foremost the Marriott (thank you Amy!) that we (my friend Kristi and I) were staying at was in the perfect location. It was between the expo and starting line, literately between the two. Once we parked at the hotel we never had to drive again until it was time to go home after the race.

View from the hotel window.

So at 7:30 the race started with 35,000 participants. We were in corral G and it still took 13 minutes to actually reach the start (the corrals went all the way up to Z). Then we were off!! For the first 3 miles or so i was totally preoccupied looking up at the balloon race (what a great idea), made the time go by pretty fast and it was just neat. I was feeling good trying to maintain my pace and not worrying too much about the fact that i was running in a brand new pair of shoes that i purchased at the expo the previous day, i like living on the edge. Oh did I mention that i loved this race??

By another few miles i was ready for the track, and there it was. I never felt such a rush as when i got to run down the shoot the cars come out of onto the race track, it was a fantastic feeling. Not to mention running on the track itself ,which was 2.5 miles long, was invigorating (the nice smooth asphalt made the miles fly by fast). After the track, it was back on the road to downtown Indianapolis. I absolutely loved this race, and felt good and healthy to the finish. It's weird running this big of a race there is never a moment when you're not surrounded by other runners for the entire 13.1 miles, pretty cool! I ended up with my 2nd best finish of all time, with a per mile breakdown of - 9:20, 8:42, 8:53, 8:44, 9:06, 9:01, 9:08, 8:52, 9:14, 9:13, 8:52, 9:09, 9:01, my slowest mile was the first one. The race was so consistent for me, I'm amazed! This never happens, usually the first few miles are so much faster then the last 3.

My friend, who just had baby Grace less than 2 months ago, did fantastic also and finished in 2:16. Which by the way was faster than my first half marathon and i think even faster than her first half. We will be running the Akron Marathon together again this year, she's going to kick my butt.


Do I dare say that I want to do this race again?? I think I do.

Baby Cocoon!

I knit this baby cocoon thing (a photography prop for a friend) as a test and put baby Grace in it. Well it's more of a new born size not 6 week old baby size but i think it's still kind of cute. Back to the drawing board, will try another one in a different color and a lot bigger, have to hurry before Gracie grows more.

Stuff

So I've been working on my shawl, 400 + stitches on the ruffle part and 9 rows into it i realized that I've been doing it wrong. what!!! so i think i have to rip it out, that's probably like 4 hours of my time gone down the drain, I'm so disappointed and frustrated that i might have to put it away for a little while.
I did start another project a baby sweater. Actually all the pieces are knitted, all I have to do is sew it together which is quite difficult. Hope to have it done soon so i can post some pictures.
And I'm getting ready to leave for the Indy Mini Marathon on Friday. I'm really excited although i still hurt after my 10 mile run on Saturday which was really hard. Not to mention I had this brilliant idea to try out some new shoes. What?? on a 10 mile run, very bad idea, toward the end i had to totally loosen the laces on the right one just so i could continue running not to mention it was 80 degrees out (which is great except it was 40 a couple days prior) and the body just can't take that kind of difference. But I made it and will go for a couple short runs this week and head to Indianapolis on Friday, run on Saturday and drive home. Should be fun plus my friend is coming with me and we always have a good time on these running trips.

Run 4 Home Half Marathon

Yesterday was the Run 4 Home Half Marathon in New Philadelphia, OH. The race started at 1 pm and for me that was entirely too late. I was really hoping to do good at this race, I've trained a lot better than for Disney and my time was 1 minute 44 seconds slower than Disney (2:04:44). It's still a good time but I wanted better, so after the race i didn't even go to the award ceremony because there was no chance that I placed. Low and behold this morning when I checked the results I came in second in my age group. I'm so mad, I want my trophy!


As for the race itself. The course was pretty but there were a few big hills that really slowed me down. The entry was only $30 and for that I got a nice long sleeve dryfit shirt, a nice medal and a pretty nice after the race spread (subway sandwiches, pizza, brownies, cookies, chocolate milk etc). The race was well organized and finish was in a stadium which was nice. Oh, and Miss Ohio handed out the medals at the finish line.

I can come up with many excuses why I didn't do that great i.e. started off too fast, didn't eat enough before hand, and I'm pretty sure that my shoes are done but really it doesn't matter, second place in my age group does make everything better.
Next race is May 1st in Indianapolis, wish me luck!

Smigus-Dyngus

Yesterday, the day after Easter is Smigus-Dyngus Day in Poland. It's a tradition that dates back to the 15th century and basically is about dousing other people with water. The main targets are young unmarried girls, a boy would sneak into the bedroom of the girl he fancied and awaken her by drenching her with water. Most recently, the tradition has changed and it's common for girls to attack boys. But random passers-byes are also targets. It's actually somewhat dangerous to be outside on that day cause you never know when a bucket of water can be dumped on you. I remember this from when i was little (i moved to the United States when I was 12), we would never wear nice clothes on that day and I would get a glass of water and dump it on my grandmother. I also remember my uncle's sister who was very pretty and probably in her 20's wore this really nice suede jacket, got attached by the water bucket and her coat got ruined.

Anyway, I was reminded of this tradition yesterday and shared it with Vince. So when i got home after my run, he dumped a bottle of water on my head, which was actually pretty funny and since i was wearing running clothes i really didn't care and couldn't stop laughing. He did get my knitting bag wet, which i wasn't too happy about but it was still funny. So he has decided that this is his favorite new holiday and we will keep this tradition going.

Here's a video of what i'm talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5v9VbTV2Po

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone had a nice Easter!

We colored Eggs and put Peeps in the microwave which is just hilarious.

The blue one on the end is my favorite.

Baci inspecting the finished product, he approved.


Also we spent some fun time at the park.

My two favorite guys!

Baci trying out some acrobatics!

and Vince's adorable nephews all dressed up for Easter!

As for knitting, since I finished the Forecast sweater, the next thing that I'm working on is a shawl (ravelry link) for my wedding in September. You will have to wait until September to see pictures if in fact it turns out. It's quite tedious work because the mohair yarn that I'm using is really thin and hard to work with so I'm taking a little break from it.

So in the mean time (this past weekend), I made this chocolate bunny for Vince's nephews(pictured above):
and some baby booties:
And lastly about running, my training has been going pretty good, I've ran between 8.5 to 10 the last 4 Saturdays and will be running a half marathon this Sunday. Actually in the next six weekends I'm running 3 half marathons (is that too much?, i don't think so). I'm really looking forward to it. Especially since one of them is in Indianapolis (and we get to run on the race track) and I've never been there before. The great thing about the run this Sunday is that it starts at 1 pm, I've never ran a half marathon that late in the day, will be interesting for sure. Wish me luck!