RunMountainDrew

Time for a check-in from #41. Progress is slow, especially since I switched to wearing a heavier denim for about a month during February's cold snap, but finally starting to show some visible fading.

I ordered the polo, sized up to a 3 to be safe. I have no pecs to speak of, so I didn't want to risk an unflatteringly tight chest. Since it won't be here until May I grabbed an indigo extra heavy flannel to hold me over. I already have one of their extra heavy flannels, and have been eyeballing the indigo for ~2 years. Glad I finally snagged one.

I've been looking at that. How did the chest stretch for you? I'm usually a size 2 (5'11", 150lbs) and look for around 40" chest and 16.5-17" shoulders...not sure if I should go 2 or 3, but leaning towards the 2.

Contest check in with my usual outfit of late, featuring [unseen] Gustin waffle, UES extra heavy flannel, TCB jeans, and New Balance. The pants are coming along slowly but surely. *weird cropping because the den is a bit of a mess, and it's easier to photoshop than clean.... Bonus shot of some cupcakes we got to celebrate my wife's birthday today. I think she forgave me for the contest jeans crocking all over the couch =D

Did you buy your pair a year early or something @mzasch? Dang.

We adopted a new little helper to take my fades to the next level. Unfortunately he's not heavy enough to actually displace any indigo. (and thankfully his little claws don't penetrate the fabric)

Fresh out of a warm wash w/ air dry, these are my XX-019-WID in 33. Roughly 16-18 months wear with 6 or so washes. These have always been a bit big - especially in the waist and top block - hence the waistband fading along the back where my belt bunches the fabric. I purchased these raw, and initially only cold soaked to preserve the thigh dimensions. After losing some weight, I hot washed which caused the combs to shift a bit. That, combined with washing relatively frequently, desk worker life, and the lightweight and soft nature of the fabric has resulted in relatively lackluster combs for a double indigo pair. Patch is looking great. Cat tax. More shots in the complete album, if you want. These have been back-burnered for the TCB contest, but I'm looking forward to putting another year and a half into them.

Interestingly, both the non-contest jeans and jacket are now listed for sale and in stock on Denimio. This is much sooner than I had expected. The cheerful side of me is glad, perhaps those of you with sizing issues can snag a pair? My more jaded side thinks that perhaps if they had the fabric for this extra run, perhaps they could have used it to make right the sizing mistakes. I'm generally not a fan of pre-order models (a-la Gustin) wherein the guinea pigs initial customers bear the brunt of the business's risk, and am a little disappointed to see this contest being used as such. Maybe I'm just reading into it too much. On a brighter note, I hot washed (sans soap) and medium dried my pair after a few beers at the end of day 1. Succeeded in removing some of the inseam length, and also adding some crispness to the fabric (the OW were very soft initially) to aid in setting creases. It also really helped start the roping, which was flat and almost non-existent in the OW as received.

Contestant #41 reporting for duty! The only newspaper I could find was an advert mailer with tomorrow's date on it - reminds me of that show Early Edition from the 90s where the guy gets tomorrow's newspaper today, then uses the info to save people. Max wants to fly a plane. Day 1 fit pic after a thunderstorm while running errands provided the first soaking on my pair.

My 31 OW arrived today. Based off everyone's measurements, I was quite terrified. With a 31.5" natural waist, I nervously opened the package and measured the waist at 28". Shit, there's no way these would work. Then I tried them on. I usually wear my pants lower, around my hips. With the rise of these forcing me to wear them closer to the bellybutton, the smaller waist actually worked rather well. I guess I blundered into the fit I was after.

That tigerstripe camo...

I've gotta hand it to the Japanese contestants, many are already posting some quality pics on Instagram with the #tcbww2contest hashtag. Give it a follow, ya'all.

These past couple pages...I'm a little worried to email Ryo about my OW measurements....

Cool thread, I'll bite. I've moved a lot, never really living anywhere longer than 5 years, although I claim the American Midwest as home. The past ~15 months I've been in Cambridge, Massachusetts and I've gotta say...it's gorgeous here. If you're unfamiliar, Cambridge is in the greater Boston metro area, and is just across the Charles river from Boston. I took this during a January run along the Charles, looking over at Boston. The whole state (and really the whole Northeast) is much more arboreal and lush that I could have imagined. Looking at the Boston skyline from a local preserve, the Middlesex Fells. Cambridge is home to two of the most prestigious universities in the world, Harvard and MIT. I've been living smack dab between the two, which is a neat and occasionally surreal experience (going to lunch and overhearing a group of data scientists talking about removing bias in artificial intelligence, seeing MIT kids pointing a laptop with arduino and antennae at passing cars for unknown reasons, etc). You can easily take the bike path along the Charles to run or bike between the two schools. It's a very popular path with some pretty bridges along it, such as this one near Harvard. To me as a Midwesterner, the neighborhoods in this part of Cambridge are fascinating. I've never seen so many home with so much history, elegance, and character. This is my favorite house in Cambridge, from a few blocks over. Another favorite, until they removed all the vines last week. A park down the street. The hydrangeas have been insane lately. Another neat house nearby, check out that window. Sadly, the gorgeous architecture and prestigious universities come with some truly shocking price tags (median home price in Cambridge is $1.45 million, making it the most expensive city in greater Boston). With my wife and I planning on starting our family soon, we wanted to be closer to relatives and somewhere we could actually afford to own: we're happy to be closing on our new house in Illinois next week. It's going to be a sizeable increase from our current 399 sq ft apartment, which has proven quite....cramped...in recent months. Follow up pictures of the new neighborhood would be downright depressing in comparison, however.