Santa Runs Tacoma Donner & Blitzen 21K race report

I like a holiday-themed run. There. I've said it. I like putting on stripey tights and a Santa hat (which I always find annoying after, oh, 5 minutes) and running with a bunch of festive folks. We ran the Jingle Bell Run way back in 2007, attempted to run the 12Ks of Christmas in 2008 when the race was cancelled due to snow. (And, while you can't control the weather, you CAN control your website messaging... or your outgoing phone message. Ahem.) And then, during Wil's 40@40 project, we ran our own Happy Christmas Half Marathon on Christmas morning in 2012.

So I was really happy when the Santa Runs Tacoma added a 21K distance to their event this year. It seemed like a great opportunity to squeeze in one last half marathon this year. And, yes, WEAR OUR SANTA HATS!!!

Drove down to Tacoma -- the race had a very civilized 9am start time, so we didn't even have to leave super early. I both love and feel a little sad for downtown Tacoma -- beautiful old buildings and lots of empty holes in the ground. But, still the weather was glorious -- a bit bracing, but a perfect morning for a race!

We picked up our packets on race morning. To be honest, if we had had to pick them up the day before, we wouldn't have run this event. In our bags we had a few flyers, a mini Clif bar sample, the odd "King of Shaves" sample, a pair of black gloves (oddly unfestive?) and this:

Nope, that's not a swim cap, though it does look a lot like one. Just a weird, very thin beanie. I can't bring myself to post a picture of it "in use" -- because it was just too weird looking. I think I would have preferred a headband. Or a pair of embroidered gloves. Or... nothing. 

But, mustn't grumble, eh?

We went back to the car, found a spot where we could park for more than 2 hours, and then headed down to the start. There was a sizable crowd -- over 1100 people spread across the 3 races. And plenty of dogs...

As usual, it was nearly impossible to hear the pre-race announcements. I think someone sang a Christmas carol? Maybe the national anthem? I have no idea. But we took the obligatory pre-race photo:

And a quick photo of the crowd:

No, that *isn't* a swim cap. Nor is it warm. 

Then it was time to go. The highlight of the race course came early -- we ran across a wonderful old bridge which was originally built in 1913 as the "New Steel Bridge", later renamed the 11th Street Bridge, and rededicated as the Murray Morgan Bridge for its centennial.

the 11th Street Bridge, circa 2013

with the central span raised

The bridge used to be a freeway route from downtown Tacoma to the tide flats, but was bypassed in the late 1990s, and, well, when an old bridge is bypassed, the funding disappears. Following the I-35 bridge collapse in 2007, the bridge was closed to cars, and it looked like it might be destroyed. But a grassroots effort to save the bridge -- and renovate it -- was successful. To make it all the more awesome, they renamed the bridge after local historian Murray Morgan, whose book "Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle", is one of my two favorite local history books. (For the record, Bill Speidel's "Sons of the Profits" is the other...)

across the bridge and around the waterfront

After the bridge, we did a loop around the waterfront area, running next to the Museum of Glass and some swanky new(ish) housing. The course then just followed Schuster Parkway and Ruston Way.

I was a little surprised at how good I was feeling for most of the along Ruston Way. My foot was feeling okay, I felt strong, and we were making good time. But at around mile 6, it sent me a little message, saying, "Umm, hi, remember how you were supposed to be resting? Yeah. About that."

I started thinking about when I might want to stop running and walk... which is always a bad thing, because then I mentally give up. Luckily Wil has having similar thoughts. We decided that we would run to the turnaround... so imagine how grumpy I was when the "turnaround" was really a weird double-out-and-back that stretched over 2 miles. When we made the turn into the Point Ruston development, Wil said, "Let's run until we leave the park"... not realizing that it would be quite so far.

I began to wonder if we were somehow spelling out a word or drawing a shape on the map, but, no:

double out-and-back in Point Ruston... doesn't seem to spell anything....

So, in the end, we ran until almost mile 9, then happily settled into a comfortable walk. We saw the 2:20 pace group go past, then the 2:30. Sigh. (Okay, maybe we weren't quite so happy to be walking?) Still, one particular highlight: We always make a point to thank volunteers and the police officers who control traffic on the course. One officer said, "Love the matching outfits. Especially on you, sir." Awesome!

Donner and Blitzen 21K course map

But we went over the final overpass (I do love a working rail yard, which I realize as I type makes me a complete nerd), spotted the finish line, and trotted across holding hands. We got our handsome medals, grabbed a banana and some water, a couple of cookies in the Half Fanatics tent, and then skedaddled.

post-race pic

Amusingly, the finish line was far from the start -- so we had to figure out how to get back to downtown. Hurray for the Murray Morgan Bridge, yet again! Except, oh. Wow.

Ha ha, psyche. (There's an elevator. Phew.)

Things we loved about this race:
- the Murray Morgan Bridge, of course!
- packet pick-up day of race
- a Fanatics "VIP" tent
- a pleasant course

Room for improvement:

- it's a quality medal... but I hate the 3 massive Bud Light logos on the thing. (Did we somehow miss a beer tent?)
- it's tough to start the different races together -- even a smallish race gets clumpy at the start

Not sure we'd necessarily run this race again, but I can recommend it to anyone looking for a small, well-produced event in December. 

2014 Santa Runs Tacoma Half Marathon (aka Donner & Blitzen 21K) medal

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Musings about pain...

It started not long after the Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon. A weird sensation in my foot. Not a stabbing pain, more like a dull ache, made worse by activity. Maybe not even an ache? At night, lying in bed, it felt ... like I imagine a subterranean fire to feel... a slow, hot burn.

I stopped going to boot camp -- it hurt to run or jump on it, and I've never been good at pacing myself. I didn't want to hurt myself more, and knew I needed to rest it.

Two weeks after the race, after feeling like things just weren't right, I went to the doctor.

I love my doctor -- Amy Deans. She's always patient, honest, and pretty conservative. She's not one to order a battery of tests just because.... though she makes a point of telling me what's available, what it might or might not tell me, and what her recommendations are. She'll also tell me when she doesn't know something off the top of her head, or wants backup.

She started out by telling me that she doesn't know a lot about feet. After all, she's an internist. We quickly ruled out broken bone (no really sharp pain, no swelling, no bone poking out of the foot...), which left us with a stress fracture, or tendonitis, or tenosynovitis, or even an inflamed ligament. She said that x-rays wouldn't tell us anything, and we talked about an MRI... but knew that seemed a little excessive.

Especially when, most likely, the recommended treatment would be... REST. Sigh. She also reminded me that, for most people, two weeks of rest isn't really that long. Double sigh.

The key, she told me, was to find a way to walk or stand that didn't hurt. Which sounds a bit silly, but I actually understand. I was offered a few different options to help keep my foot immobilized, from a borrowed boot (thanks Carrie!):

to a "post-operative shoe":

I tried both around the house and actually found them a bit more painful than just wearing shoes all the time, rather than go barefoot. (That said, being snugged up in the boot while I sit down with my foot elevated feels pretty darn nice...)

In the meantime, I have been pretty inactive. No boot camp, no running. This week I walked to work 3 days, but I took it easy.

Still, as I sit here typing, I feel the weird "burn" in the top of my foot. Not pain, just ... smoldering...

It reminded me of an article I read recently on Active.com entitled "The Science of Running and Pain". That, even after a body has physically healed itself, the brain may still be protecting the body by signaling pain. Which isn't so much "the pain is all in your head", but that pain is the perception of threat to your body.

In many cases, this is a good thing, as pain helps protect you from damage. If you put your hand on a hot stove, you want the body to feel pain. If you tear a muscle or a tendon, pain is a necessary reminder to stop using the injured limb. The problem in running is when the brain decides to continue saying "ouch" after the tissue has healed. After an injury, the body retains discrete memories associated with specific painful experiences. Sometimes when healing occurs, the body may treat these painful memories as reality even when there is discord between the brain and tissue.

The author goes on to recommend ways to transition to pain-free running by creating new memories ... notably by running intervals. The idea being that you can have good, pain-free experiences and re-train your brain not to prematurely put on the brakes by signaling pain. He recommends running 1- to 5-minute intervals in sets, whereby you can accumulate mileage while not overtaxing yourself, willing "easy victories" along the way.

And, being a nerd, this may be my favorite blurb of the article:

Think of pain as a bug in the operating system, not necessarily a hardware fault. Inputting the right code with easy victories, running drills and soft tissue interventions can help reprogram the subconscious brain to view running with the same enjoyment that our conscious brain brings to the sport.

Clearly I'm in the "did you turn it off and on again" part of the process... and a smart person would probably continue to rest a little, then starting off pretty gently with some short runs.

But whoever said I'm smart ... at least when it comes to running? Saturday we'll be running the Donner and Blitzen 21K as part of the Santa Runs Tacoma race. Yes, I will take it easy -- my only goal is to finish, after all. Well, that and wear my sweet "Ugly Sweater" tech tee:

(Full disclosure: I work for Brooks. The "Ugly Sweater" tee was my idea, and I'm thrilled that we produced it. I get no kickbacks of any kind. I just love love love this shirt!)

I have been super lucky, and I have rarely been injured in other than a few nagging aches and pains. Wish me luck out there on Saturday -- I may be in for a long day!

101 Tasks in 1001 Days November Wrap-Up

It seems like the days are zooming past -- how is it December already? -- and I worry, sometimes, that I'm not getting much traction on this project as I'd like! But it's good to take this chance to look back and see where I've made at least some progress.






Tasks I've completed this month:

☑	1.	Finish my list of 101 tasks -- finished 11/13/14!
☑	57.	Run a sub 30-minute 5K -- completed 11/02/14!
☑	72.	Watch all of West Wing -- completed 11/30/2014
☑	73.	Watch all 6 Star Wars films in one day -- completed on "ThanksGEEKing", 11/27/2014

Tasks I've made progress against:

☐	43.	Use or refund all expired "Groupons" -- made list on 11/4/14
☐	76.	Visit 5 new museums or exhibits - 1/5 (Pop! Departures, Seattle Art Museum, 11/30/2014)
☐	77.	Prepare 1 new recipe / month -- 3/3 so far!!
☐	78.	Complete the Rosetta Stone Spanish software -- I installed the software and completed the first lesson on 11/11!
☐	88.	Take cheese courses at River Valley Cheese -- attended the first one on 11/22!

Clearly, I have a lot left to do -- but starting to tackle my "Groupons", starting the Rosetta Stone spanish software, and finishing the list of 101 tasks feels like real progress.

I predict December will be extra chaotic (You too? Yeah, I know...), but I would like to finish at least the first disc of the Rosetta Stone software and complete one of the Craftacular projects as well.

Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon race report (finally!)

Race morning was dry ... a little warm ... and Very, Very Windy. How windy? This windy:

I've raced in some pretty awful weather -- torrential rain, freezing cold, even wind strong enough to make me feel like I was running in place. But I've never raced against the Santa Ana winds... or the duststorm those winds can cause... or had to jump out of the way of a police barrier picked up and tossed by a wind gust.

But I'm getting way ahead of myself here...

We flew down to Disneyland early on the Friday morning, arriving at the Expo about an hour after it opened. We snorted a little derisively at the big line in the packet pickup area. (Team Wil-Sun: "What's the line for?" Volunteer A: "Can't you guess?" Team Wil-Sun: "Is it a line for photos with a characters?" Volunteer A: "No... it's the line for purses." Volunteer B: "You mean, it's the line for ebay sellers!") We got our bibs, our pins, and my necklace, before heading up to the merch area.

Wil and I both had the genius idea that we should go and pick up our pins and pint glasses in the official merch first -- before getting our shirts -- the rationale being that they're not going to run out of shirts.

We were a little confused by the long line of people -- ahh, they must be waiting for a character photo? A helpful castmember said, "This is the line for official merchandise. The end is out in the lobby." We were both a little stunned. Wil asked how long the wait was, and the castmember said, "About 2 hours at this point."

Oh.

I actually had a moment when I thought, well, okay, we'll wait. Wil was adamant that we were NOT doing that. Which, when I cleared visions of medal pins from my head, I saw was TOTALLY LOGICAL.

Wil reminded me that we've never been to the expo so early before, that we've always gotten the couple of items we want, and that, in a worst-case scenario, we could resort to ebay for the pins we wanted. Even at grossly inflated prices, if we had to wait for 2 hours to buy them, well, it's still possibly worth it.

So we went and picked up our very nice shirts -- black long sleeves AGAIN?!? Dear, sweet runDisney -- THANK YOU for making tech shirts I will be delighted to wear!!!!

We then headed back out of the expo and to our car, which we drove to our hotel, checked in, and started our day for reals.

(We did go back over to the expo a couple of hours later -- the walked right in to the merchandise area, which had been pretty picked over, but were still able to get the medal pins and pint class we buy at every race. And, since we had bought our new annual passes in the meantime, we also got a discount. Nice.)

Race morning, verrrry early, we set out in our gear, nibbling on bagels as we made our way across Downtown Disney. I probably say it in every Disneyland race report, but I LOVE this quiet walk. I always love listening to the chatter, spotting the first-timers (bibs on the back of their shirts is a dead giveaway), and looking at the costumes.

Unsurprisingly, there were some pretty awesome costumes for this race -- people LOVE a super hero theme! Oh, and us? This is us after the race:

Darn it, getting ahead of myself again.

We got in our corral (D) pretty quickly -- they were already calling runners to the corrals when we arrived in the start village. I was intrigued by how they were setting things up -- smaller corrals at the front, larger corrals at the back. We could hear but not really see the announcers, so we decided to just move over to the side and sit down.

the view from Corral D

obligatory pre-race photo

The announcers were chatting about heroes and such, there *may* have been an appearance by a character or two (maybe?), and then the countdown started. May I note here that we have gotten Very Good at timing our mornings for Disneyland races???

the race start

We were told to move up as A and B were both starting together... and because C and D would be starting together.

Tangent: I find the science / art of corrals super interesting -- and I can see that even by having these smaller corrals starting together, they're still (semi-)effectively breaking up the crowds by time. But it made a lot of people chatter in the corrals.

The wheelers left and promptly disappeared (so fast!), then went A & B. The announcers clearly enjoyed calling out all of the costumes... notably "representatives from Stark Industries".

Another tangent: There was a lot of chatter on the social channels complaining about why Iron Man wasn't included in the race imagery -- "because he's the most popular one". Anyone who races knows (or should know?) that "Ironman" as relates to swimming, biking, and running competition is trademarked by the World Triathlon Corporation. Disney may own Marvel now, but they also honored the previous deals.

We had stationed ourselves toward the back of the D corral, so this is how it looked from the start of our wave -- still pretty far back.

the start for corrals C and D

Once we had started -- waving at the announcers and getting a shout-out as we passed -- we ran out along Disneyland Drive for a brief stretch before going backstage at California Adventure and then bang right into the park. 

Full disclosure here: I managed to take ZERO photos while running this race. Between the wind gusts and the dust and MY RIDICULOUS WIG, I just didn't do it. Luckily, costumes definitely make you a target for the Marathonfoto photographers, so we ended up with a ton of photos from this race. 

My favorite stretch in Disneyland used to be Main Street USA... but now my favorite paths are in Cars Land -- especially "Route 66" at night, when all the neon is lit up. 

 We then ran towards Paradise Pier, but turned to run behind Grizzly River Rapids -- the loveliest, quietest stretch of the park. 

Things get pretty fuzzy here. We ran out of California Adventure near Soarin', crossed the plaza, and entered Disneyland somewhere backstage. Then we ran around behind and I *think* we came onstage in Critter Country, following the river around past the Haunted Mansion, and then around Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (quite possibly the quietest and loveliest stretch of Disneyland) into Fantasyland.

We ran past King Arthur's Carousel -- which wasn't spinning, but had all 7 dwarves and Snow White sitting on horses and waving. (Those poor characters assigned to the carousel ... I'm glad they don't just keep 'em spinning the whole time!)

The highlight of pretty much every Disneyland race is the chance to run through Cinderella Castle. Sometimes you get lucky and get a good "castle pic"... sometimes not. This time, DEFINITELY!

That picture made us very, very happy. Then, a couple of days after the race, I was riding the bus to work and I noticed that Disney had posted the race video. I always love watching the race videos, remembering the race, always kind-of hoping that we'd get a glimpse of ourselves...

Then, bam.

50-some seconds in, there we were, running through the castle. I let out a little whoop on the bus. Best. Castle. Pic. Ever.


But back to the race... And, no, I have NO IDEA where these next pictures were taken. I mean, that really looks like the Matterhorn, but ?? Staring at the image, it's probably taken on Main Street USA (aren't those trolley tracks?)... but Wil isn't wearing sunglasses... Still, look how happy we are!

Then, as usual, we were out of the parks all too quickly. I *think* we ran through the little tunnel under the main bus entrance before popping out onto Harbor Boulevard just before mile 3. 

Not much to report out here, other than crazy wind, even crazier wind gusts, and most of the mile markers getting blown over. 

By the time we reached the Crystal Cathedral, my wig -- attached to my forehead with spirit gum -- had blown off (though I quickly retrieved it and jammed it in my race belt), we had dodged a police barrier that had been picked up by the wind, and we may have been stopped in our tracks -- along with all the runners around us -- by a particularly violent gust. Pretty crazy. 

I suddenly realized that the sodden waterstop volunteers (voluntEARS?) who were standing in puddles of water were soaked because some of the tables had been blown over. Tables weighed down by hundreds of water cups. Poor little bears. I'm always very grateful (and noisily so) to the volunteers, thanking each group multiple times as I move through the water zones. But I felt so bad for them during this race! 

A couple of miles later and we joined the Santa Ana River Trail. Now, I love the idea of running along the river trail, especially about halfway through the race, when the pack will have strung out quite a bit. Sure, it's not a river, river, but it's a beautifully paved trail. There was a lot of whining after the race from people saying how dumb it was to run along the trail in a windstorm. Sorry, Disney can do a lot of magic, but they actually don't control the weather...

Also, a group of cosplay enthusiasts had stationed themselves along the trail, so it was a really great distraction to see their amazing costumes, get shout outs for being dressed as Ms. Marvel, and high-fiving tons of superheroes. Despite the crazy, dusty, gritty wind, I felt totally energized during this stretch (even if I kept apologizing for taking my wig off!). 

We turned off the river trail and into Angel Stadium right around the mile 8 marker... well, what was left of the marker. A short stretch across the parking lot:

I look as if I've taken someone's scalp...

... and then we headed into the stadium, which was, as always, marvelous. 

Please note that Wil managed to make his "Hulk Face" at almost every photo op.

Once out of the stadium there was a really lovely stretch where we ran past a group of WW2 reenactors in full uniform, complete with some lovingly restored Jeeps and other vehicles. Lots of high fives here as well -- looked amazing!

Things were pretty quiet -- other than the wind gusts -- for the rest of the race. At some point I did get to take candy from strangers ... possibly twice? Hey, getting to eat a few Red Vines is a highlight of any race, okay?

We ran through what I like to think of as "my" underpass, sadly sans cheerleaders this race, and then parallel to I-5 and past the HoJo. (I love the HoJo.) Then back onto park property, through the tunnel, and backstage behind Cars Land again -- the same way we ran at the start, but in the other direction. 

Was a little surprised at how sparse the area was through the parking lot behind the Paradise Pier Hotel -- but I guess that's often a staging area or a finish area? There were several cheer squads and drill teams -- possibly relocated to this spot, given the winds.

The stretch to the finish seemed impossibly narrow -- and the course was a little winding, so it was difficult to see where we would be going. Was absolutely THRILLED to see the finish -- it had been pretty rough out there. But in preparation -- and because I'm vain, I guess -- I decided to put the wig back on while we were still backstage... which, I think you'll agree, was Worth It. 

home stretch!!!

finish line!!!

I love that we got a nice, clean finish line photo (AND that the finish line didn't blow down!!!). But these two photos, because they have a very "paparazzi" look to them:

Phew! Mission accomplished. We smashed the half!

Things we loved about this race: 

- an interesting new course

- the cosplay group and WW2 reenactors along the course

- the valiant volunteers trying to save the mile markers when they were blowing over

- great shirts... and handsome medals

Room for improvement:

- well, if Disney could control the weather (ha ha)...

- more characters (as usual)

I'm not sure we'd necessarily make this race a must-run event... though it is scheduled for our anniversary weekend again in 2015. :)

2014 Inaugural Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon medal

2014 Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon Map

Chewie finally gets a medal!!!

This morning, not long after the Wine and Dine Half Marathon expo opened, pictures of the Star Wars Half Marathon medals started showing up on Facebook. Here's one from Sarah Reardon:

 

My initial response was that the 10K medal is super cool, the Half Marathon medal is pretty cool, and the Rebel Challenge medal is "meh". (Though I have been informed that the Yoda center reverses to Vader... 

But then I looked more closely... 

Good heavens, is that "fur"? Is that... a BANDOLIER???? Sweet Vader... THAT'S THE YAVIN MEDAL!!!! THEY'VE MADE THE MEDAL AS CHEWBACCA'S MISSING MEDAL FROM YAVIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, seriously... this is huge.

Not sure what I'm talking about? Think back to the final scene from "Star Wars". The Death Star has been destroyed, and the Rebels return to Yavin for a celebration. Everyone is in the main hall, Princess Leia is all dolled up, and Luke, Han, and Chewie march down the center aisle.

They all look proud, excited, happy. Happy days are here again.

Leia puts a medal on Luke. Leia puts a medal on Han. Then they all turn and face the applauding masses.

Did you see what happened there? Chewbacca... copilot of the Millennium Falcon, re-builder of C3PO, and perennial chess-winner DIDN'T GET A MEDAL.

Now, clearly, I'm not alone in noticing this injustice. There's a whole Internet movement around Chewie and his medal. 

found on

fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?????

found on themovieblog.com 

Love this example: a guy named Adywan created "Star Wars Revisited" -- a project where he restored and enhanced EVERY FRAME of the first Star Wars movie… cleaning it up and restoring it without adding random garbage. In his version, Chewie ALSO gets a medal. 6 Pieces of Fan Art That Are Better Than the Original | Cracked.com

6 Pieces of Fan Art That Are Better Than the Original | Cracked.com

And this much simpler, but no less effective piece of fan art on @deviantART:

Chewbacca Finally Gets His Medal by CyberDrone.devian... on @deviantART

Now, apparently, at the MTV Movie Awards in 1997, Carrie Fischer presented Chewbacca with a medal as part of a "Lifetime Achievement Award" (for Carrie Fischer? for Chewie???)

But, clearly .... THAT'S NOT THE RIGHT MEDAL. That's a cheap-ass MTV medal. No one wants that. THIS is the Yavin Medal.

from EntertainmentEarth.com (And, no, they're sold out. Sadly.)

not bad, runDisney, not bad at all

Now, I was excited about this race. But I'm SO PLEASED by this. So. Very. Pleased.

found on geekcentralstation.blogspot.com

Are you running one of the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend races? What do you think of the medals?

The "Groupon" Project

One of the biggest, messiest, most difficult tasks in the 101 Tasks in 1001 Days project is #43, "Use or refund all expired 'Groupons'". It wasn't until I dug into this that I realized just how big, messy, difficult, and downright embarrassing this task is.

On the positive side, I've been a lot more choosy with my Groupon (and other deal) purchases… only making a total of 5 purchases so far in 2014.

But on the negative side, boy, have I bought a lot of deals. And boy have I let a bunch expire.

But admitting that I have a problem (ha ha) is clearly the first step… As such I am coming clean with this massive list of all the unused deal offers I had as of October 15. Why October 15 rather than November 4? Because I have been working on clearing some out, and want credit for it! Ha ha ha.

**updated 11/11/14**

Living Social (all expired)

#	Where	What	Notes
1.	High Dive	$12 voucher	?? can apply to shows? punch cards? Sent note 11/11
2.	Fremont Abbey Arts	$28 voucher	?? can apply to samba classes?
3.	Fern Life Center	$62 voucher	**in Issaquah - maybe on NYE?**
4.	Dakota Art	$15 in art supplies	**Had a look on 11/7, lots of great choices, but I need to clean out craft supplies first!**

Amazon Local (all expired)

#	Where	What	Notes
5. 6.	Precor	$24 x 2 towards TWO 4-hour elliptigo rentals for 2	wait till summer
7.	Paint Nite	$25 for a class	contacted Paint Nite on 11/11 to see how to redeem it

Gilt City (redeemed!)

#	Where	What	Notes
8.	Levitas	5 classes	redeemed! 3/5 classes taken

River Valley Cheese (pre-paid classes)

#	Where	What	Notes
9.	R.V.C.	4 classes	booked 2 classes for 11/22; will wait till new year for other 2!

Groupon (available!)

#	Where	What	Notes
10.	Mind Unwind	painting class for 2	expires 1/16/15; choose photos, book class
11.	Bikram Yoga Seattle	10 classes	expires 1/13/15; start after Levitas finishes
12. 13. 14.	Photobarn	Wood photo ornament x3	redeemed! received super-cute ornaments 11/10
15.	Mixturas	$30 in food	choose a date night!

Groupon (expired)

#	Where	What	Notes
16.	Precor	$25 toward 4-hour rental
17.	Curves	$39 toward 20 drop-in sessions	**now by the QFC**
18.	Downtown Banya	$30 toward 3 1-day passes	**in EVERETT**
19.	Elevated Sports	$10 toward AIRobics for 2	who will go with me?
20.	WASUP Yoga	$35 toward 3 SUP yoga classes	wait till summer
21.	Surf Ballard	$39 toward 2 2-hour rentals	wait till summer
22. 23.	Kids Can Design	$24.99 x2 to custom charms	look into how to redeem these
24.	Sweatbox Yoga	$29 toward 10-class pass	"redeemed" -- gifted to Carrie, who lives in Edmonds and might use it
25.	Community Fitness	$39 toward 10-class pass	Spring?
26.	European Rejuvenation	$49 in services	**in FACTORIA**
27.	Queen Sheba	$20 toward app, 2 combos, 2 desserts	on Broadway
28.	Fern Life Center	$63 in services	**in ISSAQUAH**
29. 30. 31. 32.	Queen of Seattle Paddleboat	$19 x 4 towards boat ride	wait till summer
33.	Pan Africa	$25 toward 3-course meal	downtown Seattle
34. 35.	Fusion Beads	$20 x 2 in beads	complete some stuff first
36.	Desert Sun	$99 in services	go into 45th and Stone location to see about redeeming
37.	Bedrock	$30 to Mosaic Group Class	wait till after they move in December 14
38.	Fremont Abbey	$25 voucher	see if can be applied to samba classes
39. 40.	Seattle Architecture Society	$7 x 2 towards tours	wait for Spring?
41. 42.	Uptown Glassworks, Renton	$20 x 2 towards glassblowing	Groupon credited my account on 11/7
43. 44.	Cellar Homebrew	$25 x 2 towards cheese class	check their schedule - still offer cheese classes?
45. 46.	Paint the Town	$10 x 2 for painting pottery	U-Village
47.48.	Body Shop	$20 x 2 vouchers	clear out toiletries, first
49.	Emerald City Trapeze	$30 toward 2-hour lesson	Springtime
50	Smith Tower	$7 towards observation deck visit	Springtime
51.	Bikram Yoga Seattle	$30 voucher	must wait at least 6 months after last class
52. 53.	Herban Wellness	$10 x 2 toward classes	keep an eye on their class schedule; nothing looks great through 2014
54.	Classy Chassis	$6 towards car wash	in Tacoma -- get one next time I'm in town?
55.	Emerald City Trapeze	$30 toward 2-hour lesson	Springtime
56. 57.	Sea Kayak Shop	$25 x 2 toward kayak trip	wait till summer

Yep. That's a LOT of money tied up. Sure, it's over several years, but still. So you can see why I need to go through this list. I am going to keep updating this post with my running total of used, refunded, or otherwise resolved.

As of today, 11/7/14, I'm at 7.5/57. A long way to go, but farther along than I was two weeks ago!

Resolved Groupons

- 7.5 -

0 deals

57 deals