"Winning" Logo

Last week my friends and readers were kind enough to help me decide on a logo for our 3-Day team. My poll actually had 29 whole votes, although I will admit that I did request votes from a handful of friends who I know aren't normal readers of my blog. It was kind of a landslide, as the voters overwhelmingly chose my first attempt at a logo, which was this:

What I just couldn't come to grips with was that this graphic wasn't the most symmetrical of the three options. I just like things balanced! The asymmetry was driving me crazy, so at lunch on the day of the voting, I moved the letters around to be like option #2, which was similar but had the word "for" in between the two jugs. I felt good about the decision when my friends Erin and Amanda both made that exact suggestion later in the day!

Later in the week, I took the modified version of the above image and ironed it onto a white t-shirt. The result wasn't so hot. The image resolution was really poor, plus the white on white just looked kind of weird. In order to change the resolution I had to start over from scratch, basically starting my "artwork" on a bigger canvas. My plan was to try to recreate the same image in a bigger size, and then put it on a colored background, which I set out to do earlier this week.

While I made every attempt at getting the new image to look like the original, since I didn't really remember the techniques I'd used to create the first logo, I wasn't able to reproduce it exactly. The biggest difference is the Jayhawk himself. In the new version he turned out entirely pink--beak and all! I didn't really realize it until I was pretty far into the process, and frankly, I was just too lazy to change it! I guess pink is the color of breast cancer awareness...

After adding the colored background to help the visibility of the whole logo, it looked very little like the image everyone voted for, but I guess that's what happens when you're a not-so-experienced graphic designer! Regardless, here's the final product:

Once I ironed it onto a t-shirt, it looked like this:


I can't help but notice that the whole logo/model/pose looks remarkably similar to my first attempt at designing a t-shirt back in August. Oh well. I guess since the overall themes of the two events (saving boobs from breast cancer) were similar, my lack of creativity is excusable.

Thanks to every who voted last week! I totally appreciate your input, even though the final product wasn't exactly like your favorite! :)

Week 14: Another Eighteen

If you're paying close attention, you probably noticed that I skipped week 13 entirely! Last weekend we were in Colorado, and while I didn't exactly skip my training walks, I didn't exactly finish them either! Thankfully it was an easy week, and I was only supposed to do 10 miles on Saturday and 8 on Sunday. On Saturday we were in Boulder, and we walked about 6 miles during the day, around the Pearl Street Mall downtown and to and from the CU stadium for the KU game. I thought I'd get up early on Sunday and get my 8 miles done, but when we woke up it looked like a blizzard outside! Later in the afternoon Chad walked about 3 miles with me, and then we walked almost another 3 to and from Invesco Field for the Steelers/Broncos game that night. Thankfully, this weekend I was still able to complete my 18 miles on Saturday despite slacking off last weekend!

The 18 miles on Saturday started off with a 1.5 mile walk with the dogs early in the morning, and I definitely had to layer up because it was only 39 degrees at 6:45. BRRR!! After dropping Celtic and Hope off at home, I walked over to my friend Amber's house--almost 3 miles away--and took a short break there before heading out for just over 6 miles. After that, I walked the 3 miles back home, and took another short break before taking the dogs out for another 2 miles, which brought me up to 15 miles on the day. A couple of hours later, Chad and I headed over to a benefit 5K in memory of one of my sorority sisters who passed away when we were in college. I was able to finish my last 3 miles catching up with old friends, which was really nice!

On Sunday, I walked my first 3 miles with my doggy friends at the shelter, which certainly wasn't at the 4+ m.p.h. pace I'd walked the day before, but I counted it anyway! When I got home I took my own dogs out for almost 1.5 miles, and then walked by myself for a very fast five miles. Since I was bored being alone, I picked up the pace and went an average of 14:12 per mile on my last 5. I was pretty sore upon my arrival home, but it was worth it to get the walk over with more quickly! I was telling someone the other day that probably anyone could walk 20 miles in a day if they did it slowly enough; the challenge comes with getting it done fast enough to enjoy your afternoon and evening!

Thanks!!

Earlier this week, we had our fundraiser at Set'em Up Jack's to raise money for our 3-Day team. Between us and our friend Mike (who decided about 2 weeks ago to do the 3-Day in Dallas this weekend), we brought in at least 40 people t0 the restaurant, so it was a pretty good showing! I just wanted to say thanks to all of my wonderful friends, neighbors, coworkers and family members who came: Amber & Jake, Dante, JoAnna, Brenda, Paula & Aaron, Christy & Chris, Joanie & Rory, Ann & Ben, Nate, Linda, Robyn, Faith, Debra and her mom, the Andersons and the Hilliards. Thank you all so much for your support, and a special thanks to Danny, our friend and the owner of Jack's, for his generosity!

The 3-Day Times Newletter

I finally finished and published my one and only newsletter of the year! If you didn't receive a link via email the other night, please feel free to check it out here. There are actually a few bits of information that I haven't covered in my blog yet, so hopefully it won't be entirely old news!

Logo Options

Last week I was working on making a logo for our 3-Day team, despite the fact that I really have no graphic design skills whatsoever. I just thought it would be fun to have something to put onto t-shirts, so that in a crowd of 4,000 walkers in a far away city, people will be able to tell that we’re a team. While none of my attempts at a logo are really that original or exciting, I’d still like some assistance from my few loyal readers to help me figure out which is the best option. So here are your choices:

#1–Pink KU Jayhawks on dark jugs


#2–Pink Jayhawks on lighter jugs


#3–Grey Jayhawk on pink jugs



So there are your choices!! Vote below for your favorite, and thanks for your input!

Week Twelve: Rain Delay and Record Day

This weekend was the most time consuming walking weekend on the entire 3-Day training schedule, and I'm really glad it's over! We were supposed to do 18/15 mile walks back-to-back, and because of the KU football game smack in the middle of Saturday, my plan was to get up super early on Saturday morning and walk around 15 miles before we had to leave for the game at 10:30 or so. At about one in the morning, there was a crazy load thunderstorm that rolled into town. When my alarm went off at 5 a.m., it was still pouring down rain with tons of lighting. I checked the radar and then went back to bed, hoping the storm would be over soon so I could start walking!

When I woke again at 6, it was still pouring and thundering, as it was when I finally got out of bed at 7:45. I called the local rec center to see if a treadmill was available and headed across town, where I started walking on the treadmill by 8:30. In a 55 minute period, I walked a very quick 4.3 miles, which was far cry from the 15 miles I had planned! I rushed home to get ready for the game, and then after a couple of long rain delays, didn't get home from the game until after 5 in the evening. I headed straight out to finishing my walking, looping back to the house every few miles to chat with my brother, who was in town from LA, and my mom, who was visiting from Topeka. I eventually finished my 15 miles (counting the 1.2 miles we walked to and from the car and the stadium) at 9:30 that night.

The bummer about finishing so late was that I had to get up at 6 the next morning to do my 18 mile walk with Vikkie in Kansas City. I drove the 45 minutes to her house, and we got started just after 8 a.m., but without the recovery time I was pretty much sore as soon as we started! We walked through some beautiful areas of Johnson County, knocking out our 18 miles with an average pace of 14:53 minutes per mile, not counting our two breaks of about 15 minutes each. We were done by 1 p.m., but I was pretty much spent the rest of the day! I'm so glad we have only one walk of over 10 miles left on the training schedule, and only 3 more weekends of training! YEA!

Good Food for a Good Cause

Next Tuesday is an important night you should mark on your calendar. On Tuesday the 23rd, we're having the second annual Breast Cancer 3-Day benefit night at our favorite restaurant, Set'em Up Jack's. Our friend Dan who owns Jack's has offered to donate 25% of each food and drink bill during the evening to the 3-Day, provided the patrons bring in this flier and give it to their server.

So, if you're looking for a good excuse to not cook dinner next Tuesday, come to Jack's for a great meal that will help a good cause. It should be tons of fun! We hope to see everyone there!

Easy Week Eleven

This last weekend was such a nice break from the long walks of the last few weekends. We only had to do 10 and 8 miles on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. I walked a couple of miles with my dad, who is visiting from Ohio, on Saturday morning, and then the remaining 8 miles with my loyal walking partner Amber. It was remarkably humid for a fall morning in October, but we had an enjoyable walk none the less.

On Sunday, the dogs and I took a 5 mile walk despite getting sprinkled on a few times, and then after dinner my dad and I went out for another mile and a half. In my final 1.5 miles, I practiced my speedwalking--it's much easier to walk quickly when you don't have to carry on a conversation! Plus, when you're alone with your thoughts and it's dark outside, you want nothing more than to get FINISHED with your walk!

I'm going to try to increase my mileage a little this week to prepare myself for next weekend: our back-to-back 18/15 walks! It's going to be a big time commitment, one that I would prefer not to have next weekend since my brother's coming to visit!

Week Ten: 30!

I was a little nervous about last weekend's walk because of the incomplete weekend before, but I managed to get my training miles of the weekend completed without incident! Saturday was a great day for walking with beautiful weather, and my friend Vikkie and I started out from our house just after 7 a.m. and walked the almost 3 miles to my friend Amber's house. We took a 6-7 mile loop around various neighborhoods, returning to Amber's house for a short break, complete with snacks, a change of socks, and a little Bodyglide on the feet to prevent blisters. After filling up with water, Vikkie and I were off again, heading out for 7-8 more miles in a route that ended up back at our house. We made one other snack/rest break at a playground, but for the most part we kept up a terrific pace, finishing 17 miles just before noon. Our average mile pace was 14:49, which means we were walking fast, as usual. I'm pretty sure I can't keep that pace up for 3 days, but at least the first day we'll be in good shape for getting done quickly!

Sunday I was scheduled for 13 miles, and after walking the dogs just over 2 miles in the morning, I had to break for church and lunch with friends. I resumed my walking at the Humane Society with the residents there, but only got about a mile in because I had so many pictures to take. My friend Heather and I met up on campus late in the afternoon and took an almost 6 mile journey around The Hill, but it was dark by the time we finished. I still had about 3 miles to go when I got home, so I took the dogs back out for a late night stroll and ended up at about 12.5 (recorded) miles for the day.

As Heather and I were walking she asked me if I preferred to walk in the morning or evening, and I told her I preferred morning just because you never know what your day might bring that will ruin your evening walking plans. After walking late into the evening on Sunday, I realized that I also didn't like evening walking because I'm just so tired by the end of the day! I was pooped Sunday night! Of course, it might have been the 17 miles the day before!

Week Nine: "I" for Incomplete

Unfortunately, last weekend I didn't even come close to getting all of my training miles done. ACK! I completed my 15 miles on Saturday, walking with our dogs for a few miles, with my friend Heather for almost 8 miles, with our dogs for a couple more miles, and then with just Fresco for couple of miles. With breaks in between each leg it wasn't bad at all!

My training began to go downhill on Sunday morning, when I woke up with such a terrible sore throat I couldn't get out of bed for church. The afternoon rolled around and I still couldn't get out of bed to go volunteer at the Humane Society. The evening rolled around and I still couldn't get out of bed to do any walking! I didn't get a single one of my scheduled 11 miles done that day!

I only felt slightly better on Monday, and while I was up and around the house by the afternoon, I still wasn't up for any walking. I got 3.5 miles in on Tuesday, almost 2 miles in on Thursday, and almost 4 miles in this morning. I'm definitely feeling a little unprepared for my 17 mile walk tomorrow!

Eight Weeks Down and Eight To Go!

Once again, I haven't found time to talk about my weekend of walking until now, when the week is almost over! It was certainly a busy weekend, which made it difficult to get all those training miles done, but I managed. Saturday was the first day that my teammate Vikkie and I were able to walk together. She came over to Lawrence with her husband Brett and Beagle Debo, and after an insanely wild meeting of the dogs we took them out for a 5 mile walk. Soon after we dropped them off and got some snacks, we headed back out for a 4 mile walk to the nearest Quinzo's, where our husbands met us for lunch. After lunch we took the long way home to finish off our last 5 miles. Breaking it up that way made it go pretty fast, although we didn't get finished until around 3:00. Because of some morning rain, we didn't get started as early as we would have liked!

Sunday was the super crazy walking day. After going to early church and then working at the nursery during the late service, I went straight to our favorite restaurant to have lunch while watching the Steelers' game. At halftime I headed over to the Lawrence Humane Society, where I started logging my training miles while I was walking shelter dogs and taking their pictures, completing about 3 miles in the 2 hours that I was there. Immediately after arriving home and changing clothes , Chad and I took the 3 dogs for a 4 mile walk. After dropping Chad, Hope and Celtic off at home, I went back out with Fresco for another walk just over 3 miles. After getting my 10 miles in, I went straight to the softball diamonds to play a double header! Wow, was I tired! I could hardly keep my eyes open by the time we headed home at 10:30!

Week Seven: My Feet Hurt

I have to admit that my feet are starting to feel the effects of all of my training walks! On Saturday morning, I walked the dogs a couple of miles before starting off with my awesome walking partner Amber on a 10+ mile trek. As usual, Amber's quick 4 m.p.h pace (which we kept up for 10.6 miles, by the way) really wore me out! I felt pretty good while walking, but for the rest of the day I could barely keep my eyes open! I was in bed, exhausted, by 9:30 on a Saturday night! :)

On Sunday, I got up and walked the dogs two miles before church, and then played a couple of softball games in the afternoon. To make my remaining 7 miles a little more interesting, I went and picked up Fresco the foster dog after softball and then took him back to the ballpark I'd just come from. After a quick hot dog and some chips (very healthy "fuel" food, I know), Fresco and I started out on the walk home, which was about 7.3 miles. He'd already walked 2 miles that day, but he didn't have any problem going an additional seven! It's fairly easy to keep a good pace with one dog (with 3, not so much) so we were home in just under 1 hour and 50 minutes of walking time (not counting stoplights and water breaks). During the journey I could definitely tell I'd walked almost 13 the day before--the bottoms of my feet started getting really sore. Although this was something I really struggled with last year too, part of it might be that my shoes are starting to wear out! My favorite walking shoes are some that I got towards the end of last year's training, which means I've had them for over a year, and I'm guessing I've put a lot more miles on them than the average person does! I'll definitely need to shell out the cash for a new pair before too much longer!

Fabulous Friday

Friday was a very big day! More specifically, it was the day I reached one of my most important 3-Day milestones! I'm so excited to report that on Friday I received a very thoughtful donation from my coworker Linda that brought my fundraising total to exactly $2200! Although my personal fundraising goal is still $3,000, I now have the minimum amount needed to participate.

Linda's gift was a very special one, not only because it was made in honor of her sister-in-law who was just diagnosed with breast cancer last week, but also because Linda had already given me a generous donation for the event many weeks ago! Her first gift was in memory of her grandmother who died of breast cancer, as well as two other friends who are survivors. When her sister-in-law was diagnosed, she felt compelled to donate again. Much like me, Linda has watched way too many women close to her battle this terrible disease! Through gifts like hers, someday we hope that fighting breast cancer will be a thing of the past!

An Easy Weekend

I'm a little late in reporting on last week's training, partially because of a busy Labor Day weekend, and partially because it just wasn't that exciting! It was kind of a "rest" week, where the weekend mileage is dropped back significantly just to give you a break in the midst of your training. I was scheduled for 6/5 miles on Saturday/Sunday (which seems like a piece of cake after doing over 10 the Saturday before), and my walking partner Amber and I walked about 6.5 on Saturday morning. Since I'd already walked the dogs about 1.5 miles before Amber and I set out, I definitely got more miles in that day than I really needed! The weather was pretty nice and we saw some new sites along a different walking path, which is always good.

Early on Sunday morning, the dogs and I headed out for a 5 mile walk. Because the weather was so cool and beautiful, Celtic and Hope were easily able to complete their longest training walk of the year! Fresco also came along, but 5 miles was no big deal for him since he'd already walked 7 with me last weekend. Hope and Celtic did one 7 mile walk themselves last year, but the heat and their advancing ages have prevented any walks of that length recently!

I'm looking forward to my 12 mile walk this Saturday, but Sunday's 9 miles might be a bit of an inconvenience since we have a softball double header right in the middle of the day. I'm crossing my fingers for cool weather! :)