‘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

Disney Dopey Challenge Medals Revealed

Over the weekend Disneyland in California held a weekend of races.  5k, 10k, and 1/2 marathon.  If you do the 10k and 1/2, they call it the Dumbo Double Dare, and get a special Dumbo medal.  I wasn’t there.  But I did follow what was going on via Twitter.  And there was one thing that really surprised me – at the race Expo, then medals for the Disney World Dopey Challenge (among other races) were on full display!  @RunDisney tweeted this teasing pic:

Blingy.

If you don’t know, the Dopey Challenge is what I’m training for.  It’s 4 straight days of racing – 5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2.  48.6 miles total.  You get a medal for each race, plus the Dopey medal, plus the Goofy Challenge medal (that’s doing the half and full marathons back to back).  So at the end of the four days, you’ll be clangin 6 medals around your neck.

Anyway, another run blogger posted close up photos on Twitter.  They show every medal except the 5k one for some reason.  Here’s the Dopey:

My Precious.

I snagged that photo as teaser, to see the rest of them, visit their blog HERE.

I was surprised that they let the medals be revealed this way.  Each year they redesign all the race medals, and so it’s always a mystery of what they’ll look like.  Last year they did a whole big production about it.  It lasted for weeks and involved hints, clues, videos, etc.  But I just want to see them, so I’m cool with it coming out this way!

Last year I ran the marathon, and if you missed it, here’s what the medal looked like (complete with two spinning components):

Medals dang near big as yo head!

So if you’re running the Dopey, you now have new motivation.  And if you’re like a lot of us, you probably look like this:

Dopey in the sky with diamonds.

Peace out internet!

-Scott

 

Dopey Training (203 Days to Go) and Bling

Just saw that the Disney Dopey Challenge is 203 days away.  Seems like a long time, but I guess it’s really not.  Maybe it is, but I still want to start getting ready now.  Been working on getting ready the past couple months actually.  Keeping my legs tired and my body sore as much as possible.  This weekend I did a humid 8 miles with friend runners and frienemy hills.  Then it’s on to 3-4 hours of yard work.  And by yard work, believe me, it’s work.

Sunday did another 6 miles.  And that was a struggle.  A struggle because it was absolutely fabulously humid and hot!  It was disgusting.  When I finished it looked like I had jumped in a lake during the run.  I mean, my clothes were absolutely fabulously soaked.  It was disgusting.  Did I mention it was disgusting?  But I got through it.  Normally I would’ve gone to yoga after, but it was niece’s birthday day, so spent it at a community pool playing with water rug rats.- that counts as exercising, right?

Monday, back at the gym to pump up some iron…or whatever materials they use to make the heavy things in the gyms now a days.  Today, up early to run again.  It was raining, which was actually nice.  It was somewhat humid, but cloud cover is good and cool rain is good.  I rather enjoyed it.  It wasn’t pouring, but a nice steady sprinkle.  And it didn’t take me half the morning to cool my body internal temps down.  It’s always a little uncomfortable at work when I’m sweating from a morning run…even after a shower!

So it goes on and on.  But I’m feeling good so far.  Feeling strong.  Still early, I know.  But building slowly and smartly is key to avoiding injury.  I looked up the Galloway training plan for the Dopey and it’s for peeps who’ve already been running regularly for 6 months, but it starts it’s week 1 the first week of July.  So this being June, I’m already ahead of the game and the mileage that his plan starts with.  Good I think.

Anyway, I had a thought.  I googled images for the Dopey Challenge and this one of Dopey the Dwarf came up:

Dopey in the sky with diamonds.

I think it’s appropriate for these race.  Here’s because:  I know it was a factor for me, so I know it was a factor for others –  The Bling!  In previous posts I’ve mentioned that when we complete this 4 days of racing, we get 6 medals.  And 6 Disney medals at that.  They don’t mess around with their medals.  And so I know some of us were thinking about all that bling and had diamonds in our eyes like Dopey.

Maybe that should’ve been a warning.  Maybe the race directors thing that being blinded by bling is a bad thing and are throwing us an underhanded dis by calling us Dopey for blindly going for it.  Maybe they secretly think this 4 days of increasing race distances will punish us for our greed.  But I don’t think so.  First off, Disney has never been accused of being anything but greedy itself…just look at the race entry fee for crying out loud!  But I’m not hatin’.  I love all things Disney, always have.  So I’m looking at it like we are getting the bling as a proper reward for completing the tough tough challenge.

203 days until we’re officially Dopey (and Blingy)!