Relive the Race | Handcrafted Coasters Review

-
Disclaimer: I received a personalized Handcrafted Coaster in exchange for my review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador) and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

Running is an odd sport or hobby, if you would call it that. For the marathon distance, you put in months of training, run your face off on race day and then, after grabbing your finisher's medal & some food, you head home.

That's it! Hundreds of miles, weeks of training and the "big event" is over in a few short hours. Then you're back to the regular daily life, where I literally talk about running maybe 1% of the time - not including the blog or IG, of course. (That's literally why I use those platforms, for an opportunity to talk running!)

If running does come up in casual convos, it's like "oh, you like to jog?" ... To which I would probably respond, "Yes, I guess you could say that! It's pretty fun." < envisioning the last workout that left me nearly throwing up, sweat dripping from my elbows - is this considered a hobby? >

Most marathoners have a pretty extensive collection of finisher's medals and all the training & racing memories to go with them. Some hang by the treadmill, maybe some are in your bedroom or the closet. As a BibRave Pro, I was given the opportunity to turn one of my most memorable medals into a beautiful, custom-made coaster from Handmade Coasters. 

Handcrafted Coasters is business owned and operated by woodworking and running duo, Joe and Kari VandeMerwe. I decided to send them my CIM 2022 medal because it was my first sub-3 marathon and an amazing girls' trip with one of my best friends. 

There are so many great memories tied to this medal and, as the Handcrafted Coasters' website says, this handmade creation is the perfect way to "Relive the Race" whenever you look at it.

I received an envelope in the mail from Handcrafted Coasters and selected the Walnut from the six different wood options. After mailing in, it took about 3 weeks for my medal to return.

My medal arrived safely back home, now as a coaster, and with a handwritten 'Thank You' note! These coasters are beautifully crafted - coated in epoxy, the back is sprayed with lacquer and cork pads protect the surface wherever you decide to keep your coaster. 

Whenever I'm reading in my bookshelf corner, seeing this coaster is a reminder of my amazing race experience at CIM! 


Check out more reviews from my fellow BibRave Pros: She Runs By The Seashore, Bluegrass BAMR, and This Old Runner.

 
Let's Connect!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#RuntheYear 2022 + Knockaround Slingshot Snow Goggle Review

-
Image
Disclaimer: I received Knockaround Slingshot Snow Goggles in exchange for my review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador) and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews! My 2022 running adventures have finally come to a close! It's been an amazing running year and also a pretty crazy exciting year as far as personal life goes as well. We moved to our dream farm in July, which was a lot of work and also so cool. The snow this winter has been intense but we love it out here. After running CIM in early December, I planned to take a solid two weeks off of running.  That turned into one week off going as planned and then 10 days of doing bare minimum childcare + laying on the couch with influenza. And THEN a sinus infection followed that! Thankfully the kids are super hardy and were only sick for a couple days; unlike me.  Finally, I made it back to running and realized I only needed to run 24 miles to "run the
Read more

Race Report: Fargo Marathon 2023

-
Image
Disclaimer: I received free entry for the Fargo Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews! Here we are - writing the race report that I don't even know how to start. Training for Fargo went very well and I was able to run (and enjoy!) higher mileage than I ever thought possible. When I thought that training for Fargo in 2022 was the coldest, snow-stormiest I had ever experienced, I was then humbled by 2023. This training cycle included A LOT of speedy treadmill workouts and even treadmill easy-efforts and long runs. It was just cold, icy and snowy forever!  Somehow I managed to not get sick at all in this training cycle (after a run-in with influenza over Christmas). That's a miracle for any parent-runner!  The mileage progression went as follows:  01 - 45.0 02 - 55.1 03 - 60.1 04 - 64.1 05 - 55.0 06 - 70.2 07 - 70.4 08 - 75.0 09 - 70.3 10 - 60.0 11 - 41.7 1
Read more

A Gentle Feast: Cycle 1 Term 1 & 2

-
Image
It's been too long since my last homeschool update; time runs away from me. Our previous school year ended abruptly and in a hard way, when my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer after Mother's Day. We completed our state testing requirements much earlier in the school year and well-exceed Minnesota's required number of school days, so we stopped the school year a week early and went to grandma & grandpa's farm to spend time together.  That's the beauty of homeschooling. There is room for flexbility, swapping around days/weeks, starting or ending early and even taking school on the road with us.  Life has been a bit different ever since then but we have made so many great memories even during tough times! Having Christmas together as a family at my parents' farm was a miracle in itself.  ---- We soaked in the summer as much as possible - full of farm things, swim lessons, 4-H, fairs, a trip to Mt. Rushmore, family time, baseball - and then started sc
Read more