Race Book 2012

If you remember, a few weekends ago I spent a Saturday afternoon being productive putting together my first race book, with much inspiration from Meghann at Meals and Miles. Well, she's finally here and I'm so excited to show it off! I may or may not have carried it in my gigantuous purse for a week in case I had an opportunity to whip it out if someone ... you know, asked.

It was on my doorstep less than a week after I ordered it - much faster than I had expected and I just about squealed when I saw it on my doormat. 

While I'll spare you looking at every single page, I'll show you some of my favorites and why they are so. Obviously, there's some significant ones (i.e. first half marathon), but there's some with fun stories attached that I'll always remember. I think I'm glad this blog is going hand-in-hand with these photos, as I'll always be able to look back and laugh at all the shenanigans I've participated in.

And now for the fun...

 First marathon page! Obviously the one that started it all and to kick off this running craze I've caught on to. Love how big my finish photo is and all the fun ones that come along with it!

 Color Run is just freaking awesome, and the first race I had done for super fun - without worrying about a time, worrying how long we took, or if I had screwed up. What a freaking blast! This race was done with a few coworkers from my office, a few sorority sisters, a few random folks I've never seen since, but was just such a blast.

 I really only like this Warrior Dash bib page because it's the only bib that's not stark white - ha! Love how it still holds on to what the race was all about: getting muddy, let's be honest. And I like that I had actually hung on to the wristband for this one, as it adds a little something extra. I think I want to be certain to hold on to any other race 'extras' so I can dress up some of the pages a little bit more.

 Obviously, one of the best times of my life. This page was hard enough to pare down to seven photos for, let alone doing a page of about 30 photos that were so tiny you couldn't actually see them anyway. These seven are from different points in the race, all very accurate as to what was going on and what we were feeling. And, naturally, the group finish had to be the largest of all. Love love love.

 I'm so glad that I messed around with photo layouts for every page, so first, they're not all alike, and b, I can really highlight some favorite photos or race moments. Running, participating in, and experiencing Wine and Dine weekend with some really fantastic people was unbelievable. Colleagues, one of my greatest friends, and a longtime friend all came together for a blast of a weekend - helping Heather finish her first half marathon was of course an amazing opportunity, but my first runDisney race surely didn't disappoint!

Peachtree was just crazy it and of itself - you enter a lottery for 60,000 spots, when 80,000 people have entered such lottery, and well... you don't get in, naturally. So I bought a bib about a week before the race and well... for a whopping hour and a half, I was Ashley. It's like a whole new identity! 

And I really enjoy that the back of the book allowed me to incorporate some photos with it too! Adds a little flare and fun to the entire thing, not just on the front!

Have you ever made a race book of any kind - whether printed or scrapbooked? What are your favorite race experiences that you like to highlight?

PS. This also makes for post 200! Crazy talk! 

Scrapbooking in a New Form

Happy Saturday! I spent this morning getting in a great few miles at the gym and then a good core and chest workout - those weights are going to hurt tomorrow. I haven't done that in way too long. Aside from that, I spent most of this afternoon (and by 'most', I mean 'all') on a project that I'm pretty excited about! 

Once upon a time, I was quite the scrapbooker. I say once upon a time because, well, I'm still scrapbooking college. Let's ignore the fact that I graduated almost seven years ago, okay? I'm stuck somewhere in the middle of sophomore year, and while all the photos, inserts and flyers are organized neatly in a box, they've been in that box for about four years.

As my race bib and bling collection has grown (quite quickly over the course of 2012), the bib mess has started to annoy me. This is partially due to the fact that when I made my race rack, I chose to use hooks instead of a clip - and really did not have the realization that not all bibs are the same size (the horror). And thus, you get the mess seen here:

I've been contemplating the idea of scrapbooking my races from 2012, the year that I'd say I took running into a whole new level for me. That yes, I'd actually sit down with my gallons of scrapbooking supplies and do it. Let's be honest. Not happening. So with a little inspiration from Meghann at Meals and Miles, I snagged the idea of ordering a race photo book - Shutterfly could do the scrapbooking work for me! Genius. Thanks  Meghann!

Shutterfly has a ton of custom designs, layouts, and themes you can use for your book. To keep things simple, I ordered a standard 'blank canvas' theme so I could let all my photos do the talking.

 There are hundreds of photo layouts per page, ranging from text-only to having upwards of 40 photos on a page! That's a little much for me, but some of my pages are a little crazy. I just have too many great memories that I want to ensure are captured forever in this book!

It took a lot of self control to not have three pages dedicated to just Ragnar, not going to lie. There were some tough photo decisions that had to be made!

Each page has the race, date, location and my final time, and if I placed in my age group, that's indicated also. I'm pretty excited to see it come to life, and should have it in my hands in about two weeks. Can't wait to share it! And then I can finally clean up that bib and bling mess I've got going on on my wall. 

If you're interested, Shutterfly photo books are on sale (to 50% off) through this Wednesday, February 27. The book I ordered (hard cover, 8.5x11) is regularly $54, but I got it for $27, plus a couple of bucks for the extra pages (book standard is 20 pages, 70 cents per extra page after that). You can also use code SHIP30 for free shipping on orders over $30 through March!

Do you scrapbook your race experiences? Do you do a photo book (whether running or otherwise)?