Running With Pirates, Yogis & Mouth Breathers!

Whazzzuuuup? I hope all my American friends had a great 4th of July holiday weekend – and my foreign friends had a great normal weekend! I, myself, and me participated in an unofficial race. Not so much a race, but more a social run…but we did get kewl homemade medals afterwards!!!

I like my nike mustache, or is it a muswoosh?

The course was  10kilometers, but for our Chicago Marathon training, we needed 10miles, so we tacked on another 4 afterwards. I’m glad we did, cause we found a big ole pirate ship!

I had to invoke the right of parley.

Almost Just as good, I also ran into some other run buds in the last stretch. Soo coo to go for a run in a different part of town and still literally run into friends on the roads.

A. Pickle on my right and an ole Ohio high school bud turned Texan on my left.

Speaking of Chi-town, the training is slowly picking up. It feels kind of good again to be running mediumish runs during the work week. The 4am wake up calls blow, but #whaddyagonnadoboutit? Gotta get em done!

Yes, I was so rungry that I tried to eat a tree.

And of course, I always like hitting up some of the local social runs to incorporate into the training.

We ran and then sat in big red chairs, duh.

Even though I’m all the tired from it all, I’m still keeping up with the cross training – either at the gym or in the department store.

I wear that I squatted a little lower right after this pic was taken.

OK, there’s more but I’ll save it for the next post. I really am planning on being more diligent about blogging – especially as the training increases. But if you want to keep up quicker, just give my Instagram a follow! Like a dude who eats a lot of bananas, on there I’m pretty regular.

Howzit? Training going well? Can you guess what the pirate ship was for? Do I ever close my mouth in an IG photo?

-Scott

‘Merica, F**k Yeah! July 4th 10k Unsanctioned Fun Run – Recap

Here in the United States of America, the 4th of July is a holiday. It’s a day of patriotism, fireworks and maybe even a party or two. The past couple years I have also run a 5k race on this day.

But this year I decided to join some running friends who were putting on their own little annual fun run.

Pre Run Pic

Now this race wasn’t official (as in it was not sanctioned by anyone other than ourselves – Yes, it’s nice to have that kind of power).  We did have water/gummy bear stops along the way, but other than that, it was pretty much just a group of friends going for a 6 mile jaunt.

It was hot and humid and hilly (Triple H), but we also had a lot of fun (Quad H). And one of the organizers even made us commemorative finisher’s medals!

Censored Bling.

Afterwards we got a little patio breakfast nearby and watched as an actual officially sanctioned 4th of July race ran past us. We cheered for the runners, while secretly glad that our run was done before the sun came up (and also that it was free).

Post Run Pic

It did get me to thinking (Dangerous, I know). But this was the 2nd unofficial race I’ve done in the past couple weeks. The other being the TNSR Beer Mile. I love how I have friends who organize this sort of thing.

Anyway, good times and a great way to celebrate ‘Murica!

How bout you? Run a 4th of July race? Ever have friends or groups who organize unofficial races? Anyone lose any fingers to fireworks this weekend?

-Scott

I’m on TV, Runnin & New Protein

Firsty, as you may know, I am a TV producer. I can put myself on TV whenever I want…pretty much…But there’s something special about a photobomb. And the other day I saw the local NBC affiliate doing a live remote. I couldn’t resist. I had to pretend like I was on my phone so I could photobomb them. Here’s the video evidence:

View this post on Instagram

Pretending to be on the phone so I could #photobomb the news. #imhilarious

A post shared by Scott Evans (@piratebobcat) on Jul 2, 2014 at 7:08am PDT

Ha, good times! Other than that, I’ve got a few muggy runs in this week. Two road runs and one track workout. I get up early to do them, and I gotta say, it’s so dagnab humid. This morning it was 95%. I keep reminding myself this when I see I’m running shorter distances and slower than normal. The ‘experts’ say you can acclimatize, but it’s slow going around here.

Anyway, I know most of us exerciserers are always looking for lean protein to keep us going, but not bog us down. Well, I was driving past a gas station/convenience store and I think they have a new solution.

it doesn’t say if they’re served cold or worm.

Ha, alrighty then. Looks like a perfect marriage of carbs and protein.

Anykitandkaboodle, here in the States, it’s 4th of July weekend. Woot Woot – 3 days off, BBQ’s, Fireworks, Holla Holla! I usually run a local 5k, but this year I’m joining some friends for an unofficial race. Stay tuned for the details!

Hope you’re having a great week(end)!

How bout you? Ever photobomb the news? Want to try a bait sandwich? Any big 4th plans?

-Scott

Meeting Pentatonix, Yard Work Workout & 1st Bike Ride

So the other day I was working (I’m a TV Producer) all day at an early 4^th of July festival. It was pretty fun. The headlining music act was Pentatonix.

And being that I had an all access pass, I checked out a bit of their performance from the stage in front of an estimated 100,000 festival-goers!

Notice how the female band member is totally checking me out.

To be honest, I didn’t know much about them going into this event. But since we were interviewing them, I needed to research them. I came to find out that they are very popular and pretty talented. They were also super nice in person.

They asked me to join the group based on some of my sweet youtube karaoke videos.

And they put on a pretty good show to boot.

Front row Joe.

Between the festival and that morning’s run/boot camp, I was pretty exhausted. The next day I took a rare unscheduled ‘rest’ day. However, I ended up doing 5 hours of yard work. That is a workout in itself. I was left noodle-armed from all the mowing, edging, etc. Imagine how much more tired I’d be if I got around to the manscaping.

Later on we took a doggy walk and the boy was anxious to try his bike out sans assistance – I had taken off the training wheels earlier in the day.  I was shocked that the first ride without the training wheels, he did pretty good!  You can watch the video HERE.

So he can now bike.

He can run.

He gets it from me.

And he can swim.

He gets it from me.

We may have a budding triathlete on our hands!

 How bout you? Are you a fan of Pentatonix? Yard work ever double as a workout for ya? Anyone else see a lil triathlete?

-Scott

 

PS – Sorry I’ve been a little MIA – WordPress was giving me issues.

Liberty 5k 2013 Recap

I did alright in this race.  I ran it last year and did ok, but it was really hot then.  I ran this race about 40 seconds faster in “cooler” weather.  I say cooler cause earlier in the week we had morning temps in the 60’s.  It was a heavenly break from the 104 we had the week before.  I was hoping for those same temps at this race.  It didn’t hold.  It was still cooler than normal, but at the race start is was in the upper 70’s and very very humid.  In fact, after my warm up run and drills I got in line for the race and saw some friends who asked if I had just poured water on myself.  No, it was sweat.  Uh oh, they said.  But like I said, it was still cooler than normal, so the heat wasn’t as much of a factor.

I forced my way to close to to the starting line for the gun.  That helped me avoid some of the typical clogs of slower runners, walkers, etc. who usually congest the start of a race.  That said, there were tons of youngins in this race.  Lots of cross country teams ranging from children to high school.  I got boxed in the first half mile behind some kiddos.  But no matter, I was able to hit my stride as the race thinned as the people who made the mistake of going out too fast quickly faded.

The race took us through a neighborhood.  I was able to pick other runners off one at a time.  I’d just pick someone up ahead and keep going till I caught them and eventually passed them.  That helped me keep my pace.  A few hundred yards from the finish I passed my final runner – a poor guy pushing a jogging stroller…up a hill.  I felt for him, but didn’t want to lose to a guy pushing a stroller…up a hill.  I kicked it in and finished at 21:51.  Basically my current PR.  Sure, back in the day I could run 18-19 minute 5k’s, but that was a while back.  Maybe I’ll get back there some day.  I’m certainly getting closer rather than further.

Posing with a patriotic trash can.

My 7:03 per mile pace felt good.  I was never out of breath, never felt like I was over doing it.  Sure, at the end my legs were burning a little, but nothing too bad.  It was good enough for 39th out of about 700 runners.  I came in 5th in my age group.  I hate my age group.  Why is my age group so competitive?  My buddy, in the same AG, finished with a PR in the mid 19’s…..he got 3rd in our group.

And can I just say, like I’ve said before, that last .1 of the 3.1 mile race is a punk.  You look at your finishing pace and think your finishing time should be 21:09, but no, that .1 added 43 seconds to the overall time.  Stupid metric system.

Anyway, it was a fun 4th of July race.  Saw LOTS of my running friends – many of whom won medals.  They once again had free beerskis after the race so we took advantage of that and sat on the North Texas version of a beach and chilled for a hot minute.  Good times.

Liberty 5k 2013 Preview

So I ran this race last year.  Don’t believe me?  Here’s a write up HERE!  I had no plans whatsoever to run it this year, but that all changed this week with the weather.  Last week we had temps in the 100’s, this week we have temps in the 80’s – with lows in the 60’s!  In fact, the forecast calls for low 70’s for the 8:05 start time.  Though it will be around 60 percent humidity, so that’s a bummer, but at least it’s not both heat and humidity.  Either way, about as good as you can get for July in Texas!  Oh yeah, the race is on July 4th, btw – that’s a holiday in the USA.

This race is in The City of The Colony, which I always thought was a weird name for a city.  But if they like it, then whatevs.  It’s right on Lake Lewisville and starts and ends at a lakeside park.  Unfortunately the race goes through the neighboring neighborhood, so we don’t get to see the lake or feel the breeze from it during the run.  As I recall from last year, the course did have a few small hills too, including right at the finish line!

They’re also having a 10k, and judging by the course map, it looks like it’s a little more scenic of a route.  I’m thinking I should’ve signed up for that instead of the 5k, but too late now.  Oh well.

I’m not sure what to expect from my performance.  I have been doing a few track workouts, and my endurance should be good, but I hadn’t planned on running a 5k, so didn’t do any training with that distance in mind.  In fact, I had been working on running slower so I don’t hurt myself as I increase mileage and as the temperatures continue to rise.  We’ll see how I feel come race morning though.  It’d be nice to beat last year’s time considering the weather, but you never know.

I understand that some friends of mine will be out there, and I do recall having a nice time after the race last year chilling under a shade structure and watching the water and enjoying a free beer.  Hopefully there is a similar post race festivity this year.

Peace out Internet!

4th of July Liberty 5k #blog

This will be short and sweet cause I be busy as a beaver bee.  So here it goes…

4th of July 2012 me and a few friends decided to run in a race since a) it was a holiday and b) why not.  There was a 5k and 10k, but it was HAWT, so I opted for the shorter distance.  The location was nice – right on a big ole Texas lake.  The course was OK, it just went through some neighboring neighborhoods.  I was trying to get in better shape at the time, so I called my speedy friend Mary to come pace me.  She agreed, but when we got there she said she wasn’t “feeling it”.  So right after the race started, she said she was going to turn around and try to find our friend Joseph who was also running.  Jo saw her coming and didn’t want to run with her cause he knew she’d make him speed up, so he hid behind other runners.  It didn’t work, she eventually found him.

Here I am with Joseph and Mary. (sounds so biblical)

I did OK.  Despite the massive heat I ran 7:16 miles, good for 6th in my age group.  Pretty good for being somewhat not in shape.  But here’s the kicker – Mary got second in her age group.  And remember that she spent a good deal of the race running in the wrong direction!  I told you she was speedy!

Anyway, the post race party had free beer and a free view of the lake, so that was lovely.  You’re lovely too.

Peace out home slices!