A big pot of chili I was stirring while watching TV flipped over. It badly stained a favorite blanket I had on my lap, and I had to throw it away.

The following week I went shopping for a new one, but the prices made me consider making one instead. I’ve read about people making quilts from old clothes and scrap cloth, so I checked my closet. The only thing I had in excess was racing bibs. Perfect! They’re colorful, easy to put together, and it’d look great!

I laid out my race bibs, but there weren’t quite enough. At the next Manito Runners Club run, I asked if anyone had a bunch of old racing bibs I could have. Tony Proctor volunteered, and I arranged to pick them up.

Tony’s been a MRC runner for a long time, and it made sense he had lots of bibs. Since running under 3 hours at the Boston Marathon in 2024, he continued his excellent performances in 2025 with new PRs in the 10k, 15k, 10-mile, half-marathon and our city’s premier running event, the Bloomsday 12k run.

When I went to Tony’s house to pick them up, I explained what I was using them for. He asked what kind of backing I’d put them on.

“None, Tony. It’s a racing bib blanket. Racing bibs and only racing bibs.”

He looked at me ponderously. “Seems it’ll be too thin to call a blanket.”

I told him no way—it’ll be a great blanket that’s so unique and exceptional that it’ll surely bring me 15 minutes of fame.

Tony went to his ponderous expression again. “I think it’ll bring you 1.5 seconds of fame.”

I laughed it off and thanked him for the bibs, but as I drove home, I thought about his 1.5 seconds prediction. Tony’s pretty capable, and he’s quite an accomplished guy; however, I concluded he miscalculated. He made a decimal point error and a unit of measure error.

After I finish the blanket and post a photo on a future blog post, email me if you spent 15 minutes reading this and looking at the photo. That way I can tell Tony he was dead wrong.