Raincharm’s Weblog

This morning was the BIG race. The Jingle Bell Run. Big as in lots of people. It was actually a very relaxed race as they go. Up early and trying to decide how many layers to put on. I ended up with 5, but 4 for the actual “running.” In the 30’s and no precipitation. For the record I started off running, and finished running. The parts in between, more running than not. Maybe I will actually train for one of these so I can look relaxed and ready to go even further.

The Jingle Bell Runs around the country raise money for the Arthritis Foundation. To honor my Mother-in-Law I wore a Christmas sweater she made several years ago.  It was one-of-a-kind, and fit the theme perfectly.

Jay, Asea, Devany & John

The start was uphill, for several blocks. I did not do any warmup or stretching ahead of time either. (Although we did go with the wave that left 15 minutes before we had originally planned, so that will be my excuse.) I went quite a ways up the hill, but then decided I really needed to not burn out on the first bit, and walk/stretched for a bit, ran for a bit, walked a bit, and then jogged. That is until the 2 lane part of the tunnel, where I could walk as fast as anyone else was moving.

The next part I jogged, and the game of deciding where to run kept me occupied. Moving around walkers and slower?!? runners, deciding on whether to stay on the main pavement (most crowded) the flat shoulder (with a few hubcaps) or in the ditchline (with who knows what). After quite a while I decided to walk for a bit again, and then got into a 100 strides (counting both feet as 1 stride) running and then 50 walking. This seemed to serve me pretty well, and I could have gone longer on the running each time, but rules are rules. There was a block long steep up-hill near the end, just before the 4 block downhill to the finish line. Luckily my 50/100 put me into the walk phase about 1/3 of the way up the hill. And of course, I had to run the last bit. I knew Carl would be along that stretch and had to put on a good show.

Jay's first finish in about 20 years

Now, finally putting together the futon. I think you get what you pay for, and I did not pay too much for this frame. Both of the end pieces say “inside left” on the sticker. Only one of them is correct. Guess which one I chose first. And partway through I found a design flaw. Which I decided to ignore as it was not a fatal flaw. Of course when it was time to put the long pieces (actually 2 short pieces bolted together – hence the smaller than expected box referenced a week or so ago) onto the frame, the incorrect “inside left” made itself known. It was about a 1/2-hour error. Here is the finished product.

The Frame (#2 try)

Trying it on for size

Carl helped a bit on the frame and really helped hefting the futon onto the frame.

This entry was posted on December 13, 2009 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.