Rough Haus

Hubba was featured on Season 2, Episode 2 of Rough Haus earlier this month.

I can not tell you how much I enjoy sharing my life with this amazing person.  :-D

Rough Haus is a locally produced television show, airing on KCDO - Denver/Sterling, CO.

Boston Marathon is Coming Up

The Boston Marathon is always on Patriot's Day.  This year that falls on Easter Monday.

Hubba was there last year and is going this year.

There was a little coverage yesterday on him and a few other local runners going back this year:

Reporter-Herald Photos

Reporter-Herald Story

FOX31 Denver

Marathon Monday

Hubba ran today's Boston Marathon.

He doesn't like crowds, so we booked him a room outside of the city.

He was back at the room when the explosions happened.  So he is safe.

The other runners from Loveland are also safe.

Many people are not.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the other racers and spectators.

Fiber Arts Friday: First Knit Socks have gone Walkabout

Hubba loved his hand-knit socks so much that he took them to Guadalajara while he was there for the Para Pan American Games.

It was quite warm during the day, but very cool in the mornings.  The Athlete's Village did not have heat, so he was happy to have some woolies with him.

Then one day last week, he was showing them off and bragging on me.  :-)  He wanted me to knit a pair as a tip for the massage therapist.  :-)  Then sometime later he didn't have them anymore.  :-(  He was heartbroken.  :-(  He traced and re-traced his path, but didn't find them.  :-(

He called me with the sad news and then asked if I could whip up a pair before he got home. lol.

Well, my answer to whipping up a pair of socks in a few days is Not Possible, but I was working on a secret that I'll tell you about next week.  ;-)

I hope that someone picked up the socks, that they fit that person, and that he or she will have warm and toasty toes for a long time to come.

I do wonder where the socks have gone now that the games are over... Argentina?  Canada?  Brazil?  or maybe they've decided they like it in Mexico??

It's Fiber Arts Friday, so please go see what everyone else has been up to.

The New York City Marathon Experience

Here's a link to a great article about one man's experience with the New York City Marathon  last weekend.

He intended to run, but due to injury could not.  So he volunteered to escort the wheelchair athletes.   This was his first time in the role, so it was quite an experience for him.

Please take a few minutes to read the article.  It's very well done.  :-)

Hubba was there.  He finished 25th.

Fiber Arts Friday: Plumber Sweater, part 3

I'm actually making some visible progress on my Plumber Sweater, finally.  :-)

I finished the first sleeve last Sunday in between watching New York City Marathon, listening to football coverage and helping Hubba finish packing for his trip to Oita, Japan.

Some of our friends were competing in the wheelchair division of the NYC marathon.  So while we were thrilled to be able to get live race coverage on Universal Sports, there was very little wheelchair race coverage.  Which means we were invoking, Twitter, Facebook, UniversalSports.com and INGNYCMarathon.org to get live race updates... but that's a different post for a different day.

Back to the sleeve... it's actually about an inch longer than it should be.
 
Yes, reading instructions foils me again... I did an extra increase section.  But rather than tinking back 10 rows, I dropped the increases and tinked back a few stitches to finished the last row correctly.  I'm assuming that slightly longer sleeves won't be that big of a deal.  So, sleeve number 1 is now safely on stitch holders and waiting patiently with the body of the sweater.
 
I quickly wound another ball of yarn and cast on the second sleeve using my newly found, super-short-9-inch circular needles.

The whole time I was thinking, wouldn't it be great to show two finished sleeves today?

.... and, well..... it's really too much to expect from me for a few evenings of work.  So I have about 20% of the second sleeve to share.  :-)

Please share my joy, by sharing your fiber projects over at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.  Then be sure to see what everyone else is sharing because it's Fiber Arts Friday.

Books, Alpacas and Marathons

Hubba left for Japan this morning.

He is headed to Oita City for the Oita International Wheelchair Marathon.  It is the largest wheelchair-only marathon in the world.  This is his fourth time competing and the 30th anniversary of the race.

I have been to several races with Hubba and the Oita event is by far the most organized.  There are a huge number of volunteers that help to make the entire trip a wonderful experience.

The importance the Japanese culture places on being a good host comes through...

because of that, we feel it is important to show our gratitude.

We continually say thank you, try to experience the city as much as possible, tell them how much we love being there, and we bring a few gifts that are a small part of who we are or where we are from.

Since this is Hubba's fourth trip to this race, he's gotten to know many of the volunteers.  They know that we have moved to our own farm and raise alpacas.

So I felt it was important to find something that reflects alpacas and/or Colorado... enter Mary King.  She and her husband own and operate AlpacaKing in Fort Collins.

Mary wrote a book about one of her alpacas.  It's a fantastic and uplifting story about believing in something even in the darkest of times and seeing it through to a positive outcome.  The book is guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes... in a good way.  :-)

Alpacas are relatively new to Japan and therefore quite popular... especially with their cute faces.  So one of Mary's good friends, who is from and lives in Japan, had her book translated and published in Japanese.

I thought this was the perfect gift for those volunteers who help so much during the race.  Since I am not making the trip this year, I told Hubba to tell them the book is from me to thank them for taking such good care of my beloved hubba.  ;-)

If you're interested in reading the story of Rocky, you can get the book from Mary directly or email her if you're interested in the Japanese version.

If you would like to watch the race and won't happen to be near Oita City on Sunday, there is a live broadcast, 10:45 am to 2:00 pm, Japan time on Sunday, November 14th... that's Saturday evening if you happen to be State-side.

The Boston Marathon

This morning, the 114th Boston Marathon was run.

Ernst van Dyk won for the 9th time.  He surpased Jean Discoll's 8 for the most wins for anyone, ever.

Los Angeles Marathon - Results

This morning was the 25 annual Los Angeles Marathon.

The wheelchair start was supposed to be 5 minutes before the broadcast began, but due to traffic delays the wheelchair start was shown during the broadcast.  So I was able to see my husband start the race.  Which of course made me very happy.

The broadcast included the starts of the wheelchairs, elite women runners, elite men runners and the citizen's race.  It did not include the hand-cycle start nor the wheelchair or hand-cycle finish.  In fact, I did not witness any wheelchair coverage after the elite women's start.

While I am thrilled to have been able to watch a US road race during a live national broadcast.  I am disappointed that the coverage was so poor for the wheeled athletes.

Krige Schabort won the wheelchair race in 1:39:15
Hubba finished 6th at 1:58:07

Edna Kipligat won the gender challenge today in her second marathon ever.

You can watch the entire broadcast on demand at Universal Sports.

Los Angeles Marathon

The Los Angeles Marathon is Sunday.

They are debuting a new course this year as well as broadcasting the race live.  The race starts at Dodger Stadium and ends in Santa Monica.

If you are in the Los Angeles area you can watch it on KTLA - Channel 5 or listen on AM 570 KLAC.

Universal Sports will also be broadcasting the race live.

Finally, you can watch online at http://www.ktla.com/ or listen at http://www.am570radio.com/

Since I will not be at the race this year, I am thrilled to know I will be able to watch it from home.  As usual, Hubba is competing in the push-rim division.

The start times are as follows (PDT):

• Push-rim Wheelchairs – 6:55am
• Hand cycles – 7:00am
• Professional Women - 7:05am
• All other participants – 7:23am

Usually the LA Marathon gives the professional women a statistical head start based on the professional field, then gives an award for the first professional runner to cross the finish line.  I'm not sure if they are doing that this year since I havn't been able to find any information about it on the LA Marathon website.

With that being said, 234 people have completed every LA Marathon since the first in 1986.  That's 25 years!