5 Things you should know about running in the heat

1. It's hot!
2. If you live in a location with humidity expect the heat to feel oppressive.
3. Drink a lot of water before and after.
4. Plan to run at a slower pace than you usually might.
5. Hope that you don't die and praise your deity if you survive.


I experienced all of these at a recent 5k race called 811.  It was held at 8:11am on a bright sunny day with the temp already at 87 and the humidity at 66%.  You know it's going to be a battle race when you are standing at the start line in the shade looking up at the hill you have to run at the beginning of the race and you already have back sweat. 


There were hills at the beginning, middle and to my utmost joy a hill at the end. The last mile was a gradual uphill all with no shade. By the end I was disappointed in my poor time and not one inch of my body wasn't covered in sweat. Oh and I felt both dizzy and nauseas at the same time.  I believe everyone was running a little slower than normal that day. My positive thought for that race was that the overall female winner was a 14 y/o taller than me and came in at 21 min.  Therefore I was only 7 min. slower than a 14 y/o. Woohoo! Cause to celebrate.  The rest of my stats were as follows: overall place was 151/536, 17/100 in my age group, and 51/323 overall females.  Note to self- never run a race in SC outside in the summer!

The Racing Wall Project

I kept noticing on my Facebook feeds that there were companies that made plaques to hold your race bibs and ribbons. I ended up thinking that it might be nice to have one to hang my ribbons on versus their current place (hooked over a dining room chair).  Of course I didn't want to pay $40 for these plaques so I set out to make my own.

I headed to Michael's with a 40% of coupon and found a wooden plaque to use as the foundation.  There was many more choices than I had anticipated and originally I didn't think I'd want one to hang my racing bibs so I opted for a small square.  I also wanted a somewhat rustic look.  I'm not sure the end product is exactly what I wanted but it will work for now.  I painted the plaque grey and then Caribbean blue over it. I used sandpaper to give it a distressed look and then painted a quote on the top.  I used metal hooks that I already had a package of in my tool tote, predrilled holes and then put the hooks in.

Total time invested about 1.5 hours. Total cost invested $4.50.  I'm not sure the end product is exactly what I wanted but it will work for now. If I had to do it over again I would use a bigger board and use stencils to write the quote. This would make things less crowded and half of the board could hold bibs and the other could hold many more medals then what this one can.

How to create an attractive board on 0 budget...

One of my first task at my new job was to spruce up this informational board on our campus that is suppose to display the Institute student accomplishments that I work within.  HOWEVER; I was told that there was no money to do this with...


This is what I ended up doing...I had a lot of scrap paper so I spent a couple of hours drawing and cutting circles. Then I attached them together using a large needle and embroidery thread to create chains.  I knew I wanted to use different texture/designed frames and paint them bright colors as a way to show off our students but I didn't know how I was going to do this with no funds.  I asked around and was able to acquire 3 frames from different programs through the Institute but still needed at least 4 more.  I headed to a local Thrift store and found a couple of totes full of frames in various conditions. While I wanted textured and different shape frames I didn't quite end up with this. There was some available but they cost more then I was willing to personally invest out of my pocket.  I found 4 frames for $3.75 but when I got to the check out counter the cashier gave them all to me for $1.60! What a steal!!  I used left over spray paint and paints that I had around my home to paint the frames. Once I had all of the pieces put together I went over and put the board together.  Turned out pretty fantastic for $1.60!

This is the old board. It had looked like this for at least a year.