Whew!

Whew! Whew! Whew! My great friend/neighbor and I ran the Seaside 1/2 Marathon today, sponsored by Vera Bradley.  I'm tired now and I'm glad it's over, but I'm so glad I did it.  I haven't done any races in a while because they are so stinkin' expensive.  So, it was a nice change to do this one.  I should have trained better than I did.  I'm sure I'll be in some pain tomorrow!  I'm excited though, because I beat my best 1/2 marathon record by one minute...so today is a new record for me!

Let's just be clear...I'm not really a runner.  You see, at the start of big races, they have pace stations; meaning, you can start out in the area of a 6 minute/mile pace, 7 minute/mile pace, then 8, 9, and 10 (so you don't get run over by the lightning fast runners!).  I'm a little bummed that I get left out...I mean, really, come on...where are us 11 and 12 minute milers supposed to stand.  Oh yeah...the back of the line!!  Actually, I ran 10 minute miles through mile 7, then slowed down just a bit.  I finished in 2 hours and 23 minutes.  Go team Heather and Christi!!  My hubby and my neighbor's hubby/kids were there cheering us on at the finish line.  And of course, I got my Vera Bradley bag for finishing...made it worth it!

Oh, and just in case you don't think you could ever run something like this...I'll tell you a secret.  In 2007, we moved to Utah and they had an indoor track at the gym on base where we lived.  It took 9 laps to make a mile on that track.  I could not even run 1 lap.  That means I could not even run 1/9 of a mile people.  I'd like to blame it on the altitude!  Anyhoo...I ran a 1/2 marathon that year and a few other small races and ran a marathon the next year.  It's amazing what you can train your body to do with a bit of determination.  The marathon I ran was my first and most likely my last.  You have to spend so much time training, that you really can't have any other hobbies, so I'm sticking with 1/2's.

Okie dokie, on to something more interesting than my running-that's-really-jogging-but-I-call-it-running story.  Furniture coming right up.  Slacker of a blogger me didn't get you a before of this one, but it was just really old, dark wood (not in a good way), and plain jane.  Picked this up at a garage sale a little while back.  I think I paid $25 for it.  Here it is now: 

 I sanded it all down, primed it, painted in a antique white looking Lowe's oops paint, painted the doors in an aqua color, gave the hardware a coat of ORB, distressed a bit, and waxed the entire piece.

 The top looks a bit funny in this picture (probably because it was taken with my phone, but it didn't look like that in person).  I actually traded this piece for a cedar wardrobe and a blue dresser from a shop owner here that wanted to use this piece in her bakery.  I think it turned out really good and fits the "cottage" feel of Florida.

Well, I'm all tuckered out and about to call it an early night!  I'll be back with lots of furniture makeovers this week!