Boston Training Part II & Race Shirt Wall Art!

Before I begin this post, I want to wish my sweet son, 
Connor James, a very happy 14th birthday! :)

Boston training part II
Finishing today's 7 miler marked the end of the 1st 9 weeks of my training for the 2013 Boston Marathon. I am proud to say that I have not missed a run, and my pace is faster than ever. The 1st 9 weeks were what I'd call a "comfortable challenge." 264 miles completed, which was not too much more than the weekly mileage I run on a regular basis. During the next 9 weeks my mileage will jump to 346 total miles, followed by 26.2 in Beantown on April 15th!

This is the part of marathon training that usually puts doubts in my head, and makes me start to question why I once again committed to something so huge. I have decided that this marathon is going to be different. Now that I am into my 3rd year of running, and am preparing for my 4th marathon, I truly understand what a blessing it is to be be runner. I am making a choice to do this, so no more dreading it & doubting myself! For the next 9 weeks my goal is to celebrate every training run including the good, the bad, and the ugly! Bring on Heartbreak Hill because in 9 weeks I'm going to be ready to kick some butt in Boston!

Here's a look at what Boston training part II has in store...

Wondering what to do with all those race shirts?
Over the last three years I have collected many race shirts that I really don't wear, but that I can't seem to part with. I had seen others create t-shirt quilts (which I love,) but I don't sew, and I wanted to create something that would allow me to add to more shirts as I earned them. Here is what I came up with:

Want to create your own race shirt wall art, here's what I did...

You'll need: 12X12 canvas boards, tee-shirts, glue gun, binder clips, tulle ribbon, some sort of clip to hang the shirts (I found mine on clearance at a local craft store) & a little super glue.

Step 1: Cut apart the front and/or back panel of each shirt, and cut off sleeves.

Step 2: Stretch shirt over the board and use hot glue to secure shirt to back of board. (Make sure design is centered, straight, & stretched tight.) Some of you may prefer to iron shirts first. In addition to not sewing, I also do not iron.  I found as long as I stretched the shirts tightly, the wrinkles disappeared. :)
(This is what the back will look like before you strech tight and glue.)

Step 3: Repeat with additional shirts.
Step 4: Nail large clip to top of wall. (I used super glue to glue each clip closed as I did not feel that these clips would've supported the tulle.)

 Step 5: Thread approx. 15 feet of tulle ribbon through clip until you have an equal length hanging from center.
Step 6: Use 2 binder clips to attach each board to the ribbon on both sides of the square. I found it was easiest if I hang one near the bottom 1st to pull the tulle taught. Then I started from the top and created 5 rows of 5 squares. Re-adjust squares as needed.

Get creative!  You can substitute different ribbon, clips, styrofoam or thin plywood squares for the canvas, etc... I contemplated using the squares to create a border around the room, and a few other designs, but one of my goals was to put as few holes in the wall as possible (only 5 so far!) should my college age son want to re-claim the wall space when he returns home for the summer.  Thanks to the binder clips, I can easily take these down, move them around, and put them back up!  I also considered mixing in more canvas boards with my medals displayed on them, but an inside source told me that a certain son just might be creating something special to display my medals for my birthday next week. ;)  So excited!

While it broke my heart to cut some of these shirts, I am so happy with the result, and I can't wait to watch my race wall grow! This was such a simple project! I now have a fantastic reminder of my running journey, and an entire wall of inspiration during those long treadmill runs when I need it most!