Jealousy

As the IT band issues in my right knee have started to recede, I've felt what I thought was a bit of similar tightness along the outside of my left knee. I've been stretching it and hoping for the best. Well, on Thursday I took running clothes to work with me. Unfortunately I forgot to take a jacket and it was just a bit too cool outside to run in shorts and a t-shirt without a jacket, so I headed to the gym. With IT issues, I thought it best to avoid running on a track, so I reluctantly got on a treadmill.

Side note on treadmills: what a horrible way to experience running! I'm afraid of falling off (which I've done twice--it's a well-grounded fear) so my posture is protective and not exactly as it would be if I were running on ground. Indoors there is also no moving air, so it gets hot and boring. One run on a treadmill after a LONG season of running outdoors (March through now) has convinced me that it's time to get running tights so I can keep running outside.

So anyway, around mile 2.0 my left knee started to hurt. It wasn't bad, so I thought it was just some tightness and kept running. I really shouldn't have. It is now clear that I am having identical IT issues in the left knee. It hurt like crazy that night, all day Friday, and even some Saturday. I had to skip my Team run on Saturday because of it. I joke that my left knee was jealous of all the attention the right one was getting. I'm just glad I can identify the problem and treat it quickly this time around. I ended up running on Saturday, but not a long run. Just maybe the weather will hold for one more week and I'll get out with the Team next weekend. Mileage update:

420.6 + 4.1 + 3.1 + 3.3 = 431.1

Slice

I've had several topics working their way into blog posts in my mind, but none more consistently than my Slice, so I'm devoting this entire posting to a review of it.

Background

The Slice is a cordless design cutter made by the scrapbooking supply company Making Memories. It uses designs stored on SD cards to cut shapes in paper in any size between 1" and 4" in half inch increments. In function, it is similar to the older, popular Cricut. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I'll show you some examples of where I've used the Slice on my layouts. I used it to make the fence, tombstones, house, tree, witch, picture frames, and "Moo" letters on this page; all of the white scrolls here; the lettering on this page; and the flowers and lettering on this page from my niece's album. Without a machine like the Cricut or Slice, the only way to get lettering or images like these is to a) cut them by hand using a scrapbooking scalpel from a computer-printed template (arduous and time-intensive), or b) buy pre-made embellishments (if you can find the color/size/image you want). I honestly don't know what I ever did without such a machine.

At the crops I've gone to over the last few months, I've gotten some questions about the Slice. How does it work? Do I like it? How much are the SD cards? I decided to address the pros and cons of the machine and give it a sort of review here on my blog.

How does it work?

It is mechanically straightforward to use, which I like about it. You:

1. apply Slice adhesive to the glass cutting mat and let it dry, about 2 minutes

2. press your paper to the glass mat so it sticks

3. turn on the Slice and insert the SD card that contains the design you'd like to cut

4. navigate through the on-screen (Slice screen) menu to select the design and size you'd like to cut

5. press the start button and hold the machine in place until it indicates that the cut is complete

6. remove the paper and design cut from the glass mat

7. turn off the Slice

The adhesive needs to be washed off of the mat and reapplied every so often. The instructions indicate that it should be replaced after every 4 cuts (I think), but I always do many more cuts than that. You can do the cuts while the Slice is plugged in, but it can also be used as a cordless device if you wish.

Do I like it?

I can't say it enough: I love it. Although I love the album I made just before getting the Slice, I still can't imagine scrapping without it. That older album that I love, some of it I love because I spent literally hours cutting out scroll work and lettering by hand and buying stickers and embellishments. It is so much easier to be creative and to create nice looking pages when I press a few buttons and the Slice cuts everything for me. Like I said, I love it. But, nothing's perfect. So what's the nitty gritty? What is great and not so great about it?

Pros

The biggest selling points of the Slice, for me (and this is not a complete list of pros), were the size, cordless-ness, availability/price of SD cards, and coordination with Making Memories collections. The whole machine is 3 pounds and is about 5x5" and 4" tall (or so). Making its size even better is the fact that it can operate without being plugged in. Why do these features make it so nice? At crops, Cricuts take up an enormous amount of counter space and space can become tight. Not only does the Slice not take up a lot of space, but if need be it can be moved so that you can work on it at your personal work space or in a place where more space is available. It also then does not take up a lot of storage space at home, and let's face it, everyone wants more space to do paper crafts.

Availability and pricing of the SD cards is also nice. New, retail price ranges from about $40-$50, and the cards rarely go on sale in big box crafting stores like Michaels. New, retail Cricut cartridges are around $70. Additionally, you can usually find Slice cards discounted somewhere online, and available new at drastically reduced prices on Ebay (usually $20 or less). There are over 30 Slice cards now available, with themes ranging from holidays to babies to travel, most with a different font.

The final bonus that I want to highlight is that Slice cards coordinate with Making Memories collections. For instance, I had bought some Making Memories metal Halloween embellishments a while ago just because they were cute. When I got the Slice Spook Alley design card, I saw that the embellishments coordinated with the designs on the card. I really like the potential this creates for making coordinated layouts. While I don't want to make this a Slice v. Cricut rivalry, I will point out that Cricut is made by Provo Craft, which does make some other scrapbooking products, but has decreased production in those areas as the Cricut has taken off.

Cons

There are three primary drawbacks to the Slice: its size limitations, its adhesive, and its margin of error.

The primary drawback of the Slice is also one of its strengths: its size. As I mentioned, it cuts shapes anywhere from 1 inch to 4 inches, with sizes available in half-inch increments. Some of the whole words available are cut on the diagonal and consequently can be cut to be as much as 5.5" long, but that's the absolute limit. You cannot use the Slice to make die cuts like this gorgeous 12x12 paper. It will cut beautiful shapes like this in up to a 4x4 inch size. It also will not cut letters more than 4 inches tall.

Adhesive, I think, for any design cutting machine, is an issue. The problems with Slice adhesive are that a) it's expensive (though much less so on Ebay), b) it smells truly awful, and c) using too much or too little can mess up your cut. As to the smell, cover your nose or go outside to apply it. I cover my nose and mouth with a sleeve and it's just fine. Using too much adhesive makes it difficult to remove cuts from the glass mat, while using too little (or not changing it frequently enough) often allows the paper to move as its being cut, causing irregularities in the cut. (Side note: irregularities also appear when the machine needs to be recharged). All of these things are avoidable once you learn the machine and how much adhesive works best for you.

The margin of error was something I'd read about before buying the Slice. When you indicate that you want a 2 inch "a" to be cut, the letter that's produced will not be 2 inches tall. It will be scaled so that the tallest capital letter of the font would cut at a 2 inch height. This rule of thumb gets a little bit squishier when cutting shapes rather than letters. Expect to have some trial and error when settling on a size to cut, especially when you are just starting with the machine.

Conclusion

All told, I strongly believe that the pros outweigh the cons, and other than the size limitations (which are also part of why I love this system), the cons can all be more or less prevented as you get to the know the machine. I love this machine and would buy it again in a heartbeat (ok, ask for it as an anniversary present again in a heartbeat). Owning one will also encourage you to get addicted to the Making Memories blog, as I now am. No complaints about that!

The second week of November? Oh, that blur.

Unbelievably, it's Thursday and I'm only now finding a quiet minute in the week. Running hasn't happened this week. I just literally have not had a spare minute in which to do it. I'm planning a good run on Saturday though, so I'm looking forward to that. Here's a mileage update from last week though. The 5.1 run was really nice. Meg and I put on our big girl shoes and decided to bite off a longer distance than either of us had done in a while. It was a good time, even if we walked a little bit of it.

409.4 + 2.8 + 3.3 + 5.1 = 420.6

Other projects! As I said before, I've taken on the project of finishing my scrapbook for 2005. I started by filling in some missing events from the end of that year, Christmas and my brother's wedding. Last weekend I finished a family trip to Chicago and Christmas at our house. You can see those pages here, here, and here. I made these at a crop with some friends. It was the third crop I've gone to, and they just keep getting better. At this crop there were five of us there together. It made me want to make a scrapbook page of pictures of my favorite scrapbooking dwarves, who have noun names instead of pronoun names: Embellishments, Adhesives, Perfectionism, Organization, and Slice. We make a fun set. The pages of my brother's wedding are up next, and I'm really looking forward to making them.

Post-race updates

Things have calmed down a bit since the race. As all the stories and pictures have come together, a few things have surfaced that merit updating on here. For instance, I later found out that the woman who drove into the course in Detroit was eventually arrested. Thank goodness! Unfortunately, that's the most exciting update. The rest are: my IT band still gets tight (but doesn't hurt) even on short runs, I got new shoes (the 4.1 mile run below was their debut), and I'm in love with my race tag.

After taking a week and a half off, I finally got back to running. Yesterday afternoon when the babe took his nap, B and I took one too. The 60 degree weather and blue skies overpowered my need for sleep though, and I laced up my new shoes and headed out. I'm so glad I did. Weather like this in November has to be savored. It's just incredible. I need to work this afternoon, but I might tear myself away for a quick run. It's too nice to stay inside.

402 + 3.3 + 4.1 = 409.4

Since I've now given my niece's First Year album to her parents, it's time to start a new project, and I've chosen a worthy one: finish scrapbooking 2005 and 2006. I finished 2005 through my wedding day some time ago and parts of the rest of that year and 2006 are finished. However, there are large chunks of both years that just never got done, like our honeymoon, my brother's wedding, Christmases, and my besty N's wedding. Basically anything complicated I skipped over. It is time! It's getting ridiculous. I don't want to leave you with the false impression that I have the years between 2006 and now finished. Quite the contrary. I like lists, so here:

1999-2004: finished

2005: finished through my wedding with parts of remainder of year completed

2006: maybe 1/2 to 2/3 completed

2007: hardly touched

2008: coming together, but I've barely touched my son's baby pictures, which will likely be an entire separate album

2009: are you kidding me? I'll probably scrapbook the Rock & Roll half this coming weekend, but I think that will be the first thing done for this year

Right now I'm working on last Halloween (I'll post the pages when they're finished) and like I said, will probably do Rock & Roll this weekend, but after that, I'm on a mission to finish those older years. I'll probably cover more of my crafts projects on here now that my running season is coming to a close.

Detroit Marathon

It's official--I finished my first marathon! This is my recount of the weekend, in all its sweaty glory.

On Saturday we (Brendan, Elliot and I) flew to Detroit. My brother met us at the airport, took us to get settled in at our hotel, then went with us to the race expo. Based on an email I'd received before the race, which said they were expecting 50 vendors, I didn't expect the expo to be as big or nice as it was. It was great! They even had a family area, where Brendan played with Elliot while I walked through the expo with my brother. It was fun to introduce him to the world of running, complete with our full line of tools and products, which were all on display at the expo. It was fun to answer questions about technical fabric and runner food (gels, sport beans, etc). We also got to goof around some, like this picture he took of me. He helped me pick out a Detroit Marathon shirt (which I will proudly be wearing to work in a few days). I also picked up a nice Adidas running hat and a 26.2 sticker. He (and me too, if I'm being honest) got a kick out of the fact that I had to present my passport in order to pick up my race packet, it being an international race and whatnot.

In the afternoon, everyone went to the park while I slept, apparently. I have only photographic evidence of this (see below, bundled up and leaving for the park). I honestly don't remember much of it other than presenting them with my niece's First Year scrapbook. We were up around 4am to catch our flight and had been up late packing, so I was really out of it. That evening, my wonderful sister-in-law made us more pasta than 10 of us could have eaten. It was really sweet of her (not to mention delicious), helping me carb load. My brother couldn't get over Elliot's love of cup holders. I have no idea where Elliot got it from, but he has a strong preference for his sippy cup to be in a cup holder if possible, which became apparent while we were eating dinner. Well, his daddy is "function man." :)

Back at the hotel we got settled into our room, which was amazing. The room itself was nice--well appointed, comfortable, and attractive. But its biggest feature was the view! We had an amazing location--the 38th floor of the RenCen Marriott (the official race hotel) overlooking the Detroit River, right across from Caesar's. I took a picture that night. You can totally see me and the whole room in the reflection but I'm posting it anyway. Brendan took one the next day, which I'm also posting.

Elliot went to bed fairly easily. After he was down, I did one last check to make sure everything was in order for morning, then decided to try to get some sleep. No sooner was I in bed than I came to the sickening realization that I had left my knee sleeve at home. Of course I jumped out of bed and uselessly checked the suitcase anyway. All I could think was, "How could I have done this?" The answer is pretty simple: I had stopped wearing it for short, mid-week runs, and it had gotten left either beneath my desk or in the back of my car, out of sight and out of mind. I panicked. It was true that my IT band had more or less stopped hurting, but I hadn't run without the sleeve in weeks. I told Brendan all of this. Without hesitating, he got back up, got dressed, and went out to find a drug store to buy me a new one. The cab fare turned out to be more expensive than the sleeve, thankfully. What would I do without this man? Set for morning, I finally coaxed myself to sleep.

I had to be to the start line no later than 7am. Not knowing how long it would take to get from the hotel to the start area, especially considering I was planning to take public transit to get there, I left myself 45 minutes. A little after 6am I quietly left my boys sleeping in the hotel room and made my way to the elevator. A few floors down, someone clearly involved in the race boarded the elevator. Scratch that, he bounded onto the elevator, carrying a 3:30 pacer sign. This meant that he was a pace team leader, one of the many runners on the course who help runners match time goals by setting a timed, per-mile pace, in his case, to reach the finish line in three and a half hours. I asked if I could go to the start line with his group. He responded, "I'm going to jog over. We might have some pacers who will walk. You're welcome to join us." And with that, the elevator doors opened and he bounded out, jogging. Too much.

So, I made my way to the People Mover (a catastrophic failure in public transportation--it's actually the "don't do this" box in urban planning textbooks), which carried me the half mile to the start area. Rather than stand around in the dark and cold, I walked up and down the start area for a while, checking in with my Teammate Nick and sipping my apple juice. Slowly I made my way to the start area. I was nervous. And cold. Mostly nervous. I just reviewed my strategy in my mind: 3 mile run, then commence 6:1 timed run/walk, run more toward the end if possible. Eat beans/Gu at miles 6.5, 13, and 19.

The race finally started. Before long, we were running over the Ambassador Bridge as the sun rose. To my left, I saw our hotel perched on the river, and thought with so much happiness of my boys, snug in their beds, or awake and talking about "momma's race," or even looking out the window at all the runners on the bridge. I ran a bit past my three mile mark, until we descended off the bridge into Canada. I was having a blast. A few miles through Canada, then the "international underwater mile" through the tunnel back to the US, and all of a sudden I was at mile 8, the spot Brendan and I had agreed on trying to see each other. As soon as I saw them I started stripping, the hat, gloves, and zip-up jacket all had to go. I was sweating and warm. I was so glad I didn't have to throw any of my articles of clothing to the side of the road like several hundred others had done. I love my gear and wanted to keep it! So I tossed it to them and kept going. I saw them again at the 13 mile mark, just after the half-marathoners split off. My brother and sister-in-law were there too. It was SO much fun to see them and hear them cheer for me.

After that, the course followed Lafayette for about three miles. Somewhere in the middle of it I witnessed a loud and heated argument between a runner and a woman walking to church. I have no idea if they knew each other or what they were arguing about, but it was...entertaining. Around there also, a woman on her cell phone disregarded a police officer and started to drive into the race route, nearly hitting a runner about a quarter mile ahead of me. By the time I got there the officer was absolutely reaming her out. Her response? Embarrassment? Heavens no. She was screaming right back at him. Naturally. The few miles after that were through an amazingly gorgeous neighborhood. Some of the residents were handing out various items to runners, including, beer, jelly beans, and Vaseline. By this point Nick and I had passed each other a handful of times. We ran a mile or so together through part of this neighborhood.

Crossing onto Belle Isle was gorgeous, and the island itself is worth a visit if you're ever there and not running a marathon. By the time I got to mile 21 or so, I was starting to wear pretty thin. My feet hurt and I was getting worn out. At this point, blatant rationalization and self-coaching starts to kick in. I just kept telling myself, run this 6 minutes, then walk 1. Walk 2 if you have to. Ok, 6 minutes, 5 if you absolutely can't do 6. Just do it. Just start running. It was around this point that the 4:45 pace team finally passed me for the last time, which was fine with me. Leaving Belle Isle, there was an "entertainer" who was yelling at people that they had only 4 miles left to go and why were they walking (I made a point of running past him so as not to be yelled at). I really wanted to put him on notice.

Then at mile marker 23 nausea kicked in. I'd had a LOT of Gatorade, beans, Chomps, and adrenalin. I walked almost all of that mile, until finding port-a-potties right before mile marker 24, where I collected myself and set my mind to finishing this thing. I ran most of the rest, not quite a 6:1 interval, but something close. I took a sip of Gatorade at the very last fluid station and rather than throwing the half-full cup at the trash, where two men were tidying up, I walked over, folded the cup, and put it in the bag. One of them said I must be a mom, to do that, to which I smiled and said I was. Soon after, a spectator yelled that it was just half a mile to go. I ran that half mile. Coming around the last corner and seeing the finish line ahead of me, it was honestly everything in me to keep myself from sobbing uncontrollably. Not from physical pain, but from exhaustion, mental and physical, and seeing the end of this long, incredible process and life goal. I was so focused that I almost didn't see Brendan, my brother and SIL and the kids. I did see and hear them finally, and in my mind gave them a huge smile, which Brendan later said was more like an exhausted half-acknowledgment. And then I was there, crossing the finish. I looked up at the clock--5:09. I'd crossed the start line around 15:00, which meant I'd finished the race in under 5 hours.

I more or less wandered through the finishers' area, getting my medal, having my picture taken, finding what there was of post-race food, then leaving and meandering half-coherently to the after party half a block down, where the reunion area had been staged. It took a while for all of us to find each other, and by that time I had pulled myself together most of the way.

After putting on my warm-up wants and a jacket, we left the reunion area. I promptly called Coach Mike, Meg, and my mom to let them know I'd finished. Coach Mike looked up my chip time--4:54:54. I can absolutely live with that.

Checking out of the hotel was quite the process, but I'll save that story for another day. Once back to my brother & SIL's place, we spent the rest of Sunday and Monday morning relaxing, eating, hanging out, and shopping. We had such a good time. And if you're ever in Royal Oak, I highly recommend this place for dinner and this place for sweets.

To wrap it all up, the weekend was great. It was more than great. Brendan and I got to hang out with family, and just as importantly, so did Elliot. As for the race, I'll say that I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad it's over. I don't know if I'll do another full marathon yet. We'll see. And finally, you know I can't post this without the mileage update. Officially over 400 miles for the year!

370.5 + 3.3 + 2.0 + 26.2 = 402

Gearing up! Errr, ramping down I mean

It's the final week. Excitement level is up, mileage is down, hence the title. I went to the running store today and bought a thing to carry an arsenal of Sport Beans in, plus the beans themselves. I'm mentally starting to make a list of everything I need to take to Detroit, and what of those things cannot be trusted in a checked bag. What can't I replace at the expo if my luggage doesn't make it? What can I run without? I am so excited!! My knee seems to be doing much better, so I'm lacking confidence, but feeling very encouraged about race day.

Saturday I was scheduled to run an hour. After the first 2.4 miles, Coach Mike said I was running a little faster than a 5 mph pace, so I should aim at running a little over 5 and should not get carried away and do more than 6. Starting the back half of the run, I was warmed up (it was maybe 40 degrees out, so the start was chilly), excited, and just couldn't help myself. I ran as fast as I wanted. I had a ball. It was great. I did 5.4 and came back at around the 55 minute mark. I got glared at a little bit for going so much faster than my race pace, but I just smiled. It was a great way to end long run training. Into the week now, I ran 3.3 today and will probably do the same tomorrow, since the rain is heading back in by Wednesday.

Here is an update on miles. I would like to point out that I have officially passed what was always my annual goal in college, 365 miles, or a mile a day for a whole year. It always seemed like such an easy goal and yet I never did it. So, big smile for that.

361.8 + 5.4 + 3.3 = 370.5

I have a million other things going on, though at the moment most notably scrapbooking. I went to another crop this past weekend and had a GREAT time. I finally finished my niece's first year album! I'm still working on coating a page that's having some issues with ink drying, but the actual making of pages is finished. I will be giving it to them this weekend, which will be another part of the fun. I'm excited about this weekend--can you tell?

Trip to DC

Mileage has been way down the last week and a half. Last week I was out of town for work. I just plain didn't have time for a 12 mile run, so I did my best, which was 5.3 miles. I also got in a 3 mile run on Monday morning before flying back home. Tuesday I took off to get unpacked, caught up on sleep, and get settled in. Wednesday I (brace yourself) planned ahead and brought running clothes to the office so I could break for a mid-afternoon run. It's starting to get dark early, and I had a hundred other things to do that evening, so I ran when I could. It turned out to be a great decision, because the weather was gorgeous when I ran and turned ugly not long after. It's been raining for the last two days, and hence, I've been inside, being lazy. So, the mileage update.

350.5 + 5.3 + 3.0 + 3.0 = 361.8

I'm definitely not as prepared as I would like to be going into my first marathon. I never got to the 18 or 20 mile long runs. My mileage these last two weeks has been way down. It might rain on race day, which I'm not really prepared for. Regardless, I'm excited for the race and hoping for the best!

In non-running news, I'm closing in on my niece's First Year album. I am so excited to finally be giving it to them when we go to Detroit. I'm headed to a crop tomorrow to wrap up work on it. N is going with me tomorrow too, and we're both pretty excited.

As for little Elliot, his babbling is becoming alarmingly more word-like every day. Yesterday while going upstairs it really sounded like he said, "I'm just climbing." It's amazing to watch him develop. I took him with me to DC so he could have some QT with the grandparents. He hung out with Grandma and Grandaddy Paulson for a few days and with his Nana for a few days. We also got to visit with my friends Jamie and Will. It was Will's first time meeting Elliot, and Jamie hadn't seen him since last Thanksgiving. I was SO happy to have the chance to see them and catch up. Elliot did very well with all the transitioning from place to place, and seems to have had fun with everyone. Grandma Paulson took the picture below. The travel was long though, and so he was overjoyed when we finally got home on Monday night. His face just lit up when he realized that we were walking into the house. He ran around the first floor, rediscovering his toys, opening all the drawers he has access to and waving around his play objects (like a sheet of stamps we let him play with). It was great. And his return to daycare on Tuesday was with even more enthusiasm.