FO: Below Zero Hat

I guess when I finish projects, they seem to all creep up and finish together.  Over the Easter weekend, I plowed ahead on the easy Below Zero Hat, finishing it just in time to not wear it for at least another 5 months.  Then again, I do live in Duluth, so I shouldn't say things that will come back to haunt me...

Pattern: Raituli by Marja Suomela
Yarn: Color stripes are Noro's Taiyo Sock, and the gray stripes are in Three Irish Girl's Adorn Sock in Dorian Gray.
Needles: Brim is on size 1, then I switched up to size 3's for the rest of the hat.
Timeframe: March 15th-April 19th.

Mods: I changed the needle size only because I didn't want to go buy a size 1 1/2 circular needle when I had size 1 already, and I know I changed the decreases just a little so it would go faster.  Not much else.
Worst Part: I originally started the striped part of the hat with a part of the Noro Taiyo yarn color that started dark red, then went to black, then went to dark red, and I hated it.  I yanked back the whole thing to the beginning of the brim, unwound the Noro a bit, and started just on the black part.  The gradation of color looks much better, in my opinion.  I wasn't excited to rip back in the beginning, but I am much happier with how it turned out.

Best Part: For the first time since I became a knitter, I own a pair of hat and mittens made by me that match!  This might sound like a slightly ridiculous victory since I've been knitting for so long, but I just kept making stuff for others and completely forgot to make a set for myself.  It's about time.
I'm leaving on Friday to go to the cities for a dance competition all weekend, so I'm trying to stuff all the cleaning and laundry and grading in now so I can concentrate on my girls this weekend.  So far it's mildly working.  I did get a good workout in already today, and hopefully I get a run in before it rains this evening.  Training for the 1/2 marathon so far has been... not amazing.  I usually feel decent after I run (and especially if I stretch and do a little yoga after the run), but during and especially near the end of a run, I either have a really nasty side ache and can't breathe, or the arches of my feet cramp up so bad I have to prance the last half mile on the balls of my feet.  It's been pretty horrendous.

Here's hoping that the next few weeks of training feel a lot better than the first two weeks.
I also did a little bouldering down at the climbing gym, finishing up by doing some campus board workouts and dead hangs to work on my finger strength.

Those felt waaaay better than running.  I think I need to accept that I am not good at the cardio thing unless it's a little on the chill side (like hiking... or classic cross-country... or anything above a jog).  Unfortunately, I have a 1/2 marathon coming up in two months that I have to survive through first.  What the hell was I thinking, signing up for that?
::sigh::
Sometimes I have some really dumb ambitious thoughts that I shouldn't actually act on...