Sweetheart 10K race

This race was originally scheduled for last Saturday, but as I mentioned, the City of Overland Park called a snow emergency; when that happens, they won’t provide support for races, and the races can’t be held without the support. So it was rescheduled for today.

The weather was far yuckier today than last Saturday (which was merely frigid). I woke up to a wintery mix, which turned to a bit of snow and then sleet and then rain, all within an hour’s time. I’d planned to run a warm up couple of miles around 7 but at that point it was raining.

I decided I’d try to warm up at the racing venue instead, since everything was supposed to start drying up around 8:30. Unfortunately, the only thing my warm up run did was get my feet soaking wet. I mean they were squelching! Temps were in the low 30s and we had a good wind from the west, so the wind chill was in the upper 20s. Brrr.

Still, the rain had stopped which was good. Here I am under the orange arrow with the super bright pink ball cap on as we started:

And at the finish:

Huh, I thought the clouds had cleared out more than that.

And my official times:

My three goals for this 10K were:

• Don’t injure myself—most important goal. Achieved!
• Finish the race—so that reinforces the first goal because I can’t finish if I hurt myself. Achieved!
• If possible, keep my pace under 10 minutes per mile. Achieved! And I'm so tickled, my average pace per mile was 9:05.

My official chip time for the 10K was 56:22:9, I came in second in my age group, 26th out of all females and 59th out of the 249 who ran the 10k. I joked with Kent that I keep improving, and still keep coming in second in my age group. We looked at the results for the younger women, and I’d have won a couple of them. What can I say, I’m in a fast age group.

That is the blingiest finisher's medal I've ever seen.

Next up, I won an entry to the Big 12 races on March 10 from my employer, so I'll be running a (hilly) 12K proudly wearing a Jayhawk cap. And I'm fully focused on the first of three half marathons on April 14. 

Getting ready for winter redux

It's cold enough now for quilts on the bed--I'm excited because I get to use the beautiful quilt my mother made for me. Because I love it so much, I've posted a picture of the whole bed plus a close up of the material and quilting. I'm so very glad that Kent isn't one of those weird men who think having pink in the bedroom somehow emasculates them. Pink doesn't emasculate men any more than black or brown make women less feminine.






Last year we hung curtains across our back door and also enclosed the stairwell leading up to the front door with insulated curtains. We found that the stairwell acted like a chimney so all our heat collected at the top of the stairs by the door, which did us no good at all.

This year, Kent did some reading about forced air electric heaters, our only heating method in the house. We can't really put in forced air or even a heat pump because the unit doesn't have any duct work so the cost would be insanely high. Anyway, Kent learned that these small wall heaters are quite good at heating small spaces quickly. One of our biggest complaints last year was that our office nook didn't stay warm, and based on what he read we finally understood why.

Take a look at the picture on the left. I've circled the office nook in red (it's called a dining room in the picture, which makes me laugh a bit); as you can see, it's rectangular, with an exterior door on the right side and an archway leading to the hall (and the stairwell) on the left side. The wall heater is on the long wall right by the exterior wall. Last year the heat just didn't stay in the space very well--it could go out into the living room or into the hall.

Yesterday we found curtains that match our living room curtains and the curtains we have across the back door. I lined them and Kent got them hung, and here's the finished product:

Spring is a myth in Boston

There—I said it out loud. Officially spring started last Friday. Sunday night/Monday morning, our temperature dropped to 22F. The high was 31. Today is not much better. The one saving grace is that it’s sunny outside. Sunny and absolutely FREEZING.

We are looking at ways to bring more natural light into our apartment. We knew going into it that light would be scarce, and it is. That’s also why we could afford as big of a place as we have, but in the meantime we are looking to boost the light. You might remember that our bathroom was originally painted dark gray (think battleship gray, only a bit darker) and has slate tiles on the floor and glass tiles in the bathroom that are three shades of gray. It’s a very dramatic look and in a space with lots of sunshine, it would work well. But not here—so the first thing we did was paint the bathroom a much lighter color and increase the wattage in the lights.

Saturday we got a different shower curtain and that’s made a huge difference too. The new one is slightly off white, and very sheer with more opaque leaves of the same color and material appliquéd on it. Being so sheer, it lets far more light into the shower. So next up in the bathroom will be painting the cabinets a glossy just off white color (they are faux cherry stained), and probably painting the walls a semi-gloss to match.

Our bedroom has a big window well with a small window. The well walls are made of poured concrete and we think at least one of us (OK me) can fit through the window. If so, we want to paint the concrete white. I’ve seen several window wells like ours around the South End that have been painted, and the paint really seems to increase the brightness.

Most of the painting projects require outdoor work, which in turn requires warmer weather. So I am waiting pretty impatiently for the weather to get warmer.

Today's weather

If you listen to NPR in the mornings, then this morning you probably heard the newscaster mention the big storm that stretches from Washington DC up past Boston. I took this picture at about 6:15 AM--yesterday morning the patio was almost entirely clear of snow and the patio table was clear. The snow is coming down pretty steadily so I'm not going anywhere except to shovel later today. Apparently most of the East Coast airports are shut down and have canceled all flights. Good thing Kent left yesterday!

Here's our weather map from NOAA. So I think it's not going to stop snowing before noon.