Dopey Meet-Ups!

I love how that now-a-days pretty much all my friends are so active.  It always amazes me that I can go to a race, or just go on a training run, and I’m almost guaranteed to “run into” someone I know.  I like that.  It was no different when I traveled half way across the country for a race.  At the Disney Dopey Challenge, I got to meet-up with a few peeps.

If you missed my recaps of the races, you can see them here:  5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2

First off, these aren’t really reunions, but traveling with me was our boy and my moms.  The boy was doing the Kid’s Race for the 3rd time.

Collage credit goes to my mom. She got all artsy recently.

My moms was doing the Dopey Challenge too.  She only started running a few years ago, and hadn’t run a full marathon yet, but she wanted to make this happen!

Traditional pre-race family photo.

And of course, my sis.  She lives in Orlando, FL so of course we saw her.  Also, her and her roomie let us crash at their crib (I’m so hip), so that was groovy (see).  And if you’ve followed along, then you know that she ran the Dopey too!  We even ran the whole half marathon portion together.

Sibling photo op.  The castle photo bombed us.

Many of you asked how my mom and sis did, and I’m here to tell you that they both finished!  My sis came across the full marathon line a little after me and we reunited when she passed by me stretching next to the medical tent.

With Sis before the marathon. We looked much better here than afterwards.

After we cleaned up, we went into Epcot to look for our ma.  We bought a rose with a Mickey Mouse in it to give to her.  Our plan was for the boy to hand it to her as she passed so she could cross the finish line with it.  All we had to do was wait.

While waiting, we cheered on all the other runners.  And we saw my sister’s friend and cheered for him!  He had met us each morning (he was Dopey too) before the races and served as our official pre race family photographer.

Pre one of the races with my sis’ friend.

Then we finally saw our ma!  We yelled at her to come over so we could hand her the rose, but get this…she blew us off!!!  Haha!  She literally waved us off and kept going.  Everyone around us thought that was pretty funny too.  They said it was comical that we had been waiting there for her, and she was not interested in stopping.

The boy said he was looking “stylish”.

Now I know how it is in a marathon, and I’m sure at that point in the race she just wanted to finish, but it was still funny to us.  Anyway, we gave her the rose a little later.

You can see the rose on the ground next to her. Don’t marathons look fun???

Another mom collage.

Another meet-up I had was with a friend from high school…who I hadn’t seen since high school.  We ran track together at our Ohio high school, but now he lives in Hawaii.  Not a bad gig if you can get it.  Anyway, he was doing the Dopey too.  I actually bumped into him in my coral before the 5k and we ran the whole way together.

That’s him next to me (he’s in the kilt).

We would see each other before and after each race.  It was cool to catch up.

Representing the mean streets of our hometown – Westerville, Ohio.

I had another long time reunion.  Now I must preface this with a short fun fact – also in high school, I used to travel the East coast competing in (mostly) hip hop dance competitions.  My sis went to a dance school, and I just kind of fell into it.

National championships in Myrtle Beach. I know you’re jealous of my mighty dancing shoulder pads.

So, one of the gals I used to dance with now lives in Florida and her and her husband were running the marathon.  After they finished (PR’d!!!) we met up for some post race re-hydrating.

We had to refill our carb levels somehow.

I hadn’t seen her in a long long time, so that was awesome!

Another meet-up I had was with a fellow blogger.  Danielle over at Live, Run, Grow.  There were many that I wanted to run into, but I was only able to find this one.  And here’s how: before the Dopey she had blogged her race costume – Newsies.  After the 10k, I saw a group of Newsies, and knew it must be her.  So we had a brief meet-up.

Virtual friends meet! We take life very seriously.

That’s a great tip from her – post  your race costumes before hand so people looking for you can find you!  For you other blogger friends who were there, know that I was looking for you, and I’m sorry we weren’t able to meet up.

So there are the running reunions I had at the Dopey Challenge.  So cool!

How bout you?  Ever run into old/new friends at races?  Any surprise get togethers?

Turkey Day Races

Sis and I after a Dallas Trot couple years ago. Be jealous of my sweet headband.

This year I am not racing on American Thanksgiving.  It’s the first time in as long as I can remember that I haven’t.  Feeling nostalgic, I went and looked up some of my old Turkey Day race results.  Much to my surprise, I found out I once got 2nd place in my age group in the Dallas 8 mile Turkey Trot.  I had no idea.  That race gets like 40,000+ people, so yay for me, haha!

Here’s me and my sis taking the race extremely seriously (yes, that’s me doing the Running Man dance while Running)

The race in Dallas has gotten so big and crowded, that I’m going to take a break from it for a while.  Can you imagine that many people with starting corrals????  It’s chaos!  I hear they’re making changes, and hopefully they can get it worked out.

That said, there’s an alternative around where I live:  The North Texas Turkey Trot.  I ran the 10k option last year and enjoyed it.  Here I am before and after…

Throw your deuces up.

I eat you turkey!

A lot of people like to run these races to have an excuse to eat guilt free later in the day.  Most of my friends tho, do so for another reason:  to have an excuse to tailgate at 9 in the morning.  Yup.

Here’s some of us after a Dallas Trot a couple years ago…

We are so thankful.

And here’s some of us after last year’s N.TX Trot…

I’m in the background, but I prefer this pic of my Drasian friend (drunk Asian).                           Click image to enlarge.

Since I’m not racing this year, I think I’ll still be out there early to tailgate cheer for my friends.  Then it’s off to celebrate with the family!

How ’bout y’all?  Any Turkey Day racers out there?   Other plans to give thanks?

Flula, St. Pats, The Mavs, Oh My!

So that was a jam packed crazy weekend, I tell you.  I’m still nursing this month long weird sickness thing, so I decided not to run, even the the Dallas Rock N Roll Half Marathon was a week away.  Due to this bug I haven’t been able to train properly for weeks, so I figure I’ll just not care about times and just have fun with it.  But even without the running or going to the gym, I still got a workout!  That’s cause I was lugging around video equipment as we shot a crap TON of footage for some videos we’re making with the great Flula Borg!!!!

Like our dope videos or we will fight you…in a non violent way.

Firsty off, you should know that this weekend was also St. Pats and my birthday weekend.  So it’s usually kind of a big deal to me.  But I skipped it all (mostly) for this amazing opportunity and I’m glad I did.  Yup, I skipped running, my soccer game, the crazy Dallas St. Patrick’s Day party, having a birthday party, all of it.  And I had an absolute blast doing it.  It was so great being around all of Flula’s creative energy for two straight days.

My friend, the amazing TV host Emily Reppert interviewing Flula for a segment we shot.  And yes, that’s a bedazzled fanny pack.

If you don’t know Flula, whenever you get a free day, spend it watching his hilarious youtube videos (vlogs, music videos, celeb interviews, autotunes, etc. etc.).  He’s also a sometimes DJ, hypeman, actor, live concert giver, poet, host, and author (he’s written two books – both in one day without using spell check).  You can find info here: http://flulaborg.com/

Shooting a episode of “Autotunes” on the Zamboni! He was singing “Ice Ice Baby” btw.

Anyways, now I’m in the process of editing, and videos will periodically be released.  But in addition to working with us, he was also interviewed a few times on 105.3 The Fan sports radio station, aaaaaannnnddd the Dallas Mavericks brought him in to meet his idol – Dirk Nowitzki – and shoot some videos for mavs.com.  And an extra cool part about that is Flula gave me an extra ticket to the Mavs vs Thunder game St. Pats evening.  I’m a huge fan and it was fun sitting a few rows behind Mark Cuban.

We lost the game to OKC, but hey, at least we don’t live in OKC. Kidding. No I’m not. Yes I am.

And the hits keep on coming.  After the game we went to see my friend’s band Graceland Ninjas!  This was for St. Pats since it was the actual day, even though it was Sunday evening.  These guys are a lot of fun.  They play cover songs as Elvis.  And when they saw me in the crowd, they pulled me up on stage to dance (as they sometimes do).  They also had the crowd wish me happy birthday.

I dance so radical, the camera can’t keep me in focus.

And get this!  They’re normal guitarist was unavailable, so who did they get to fill in – John Lefler!  He’s a great solo artist, but he’s best known for being in Dashboard Confessional.  If you know them, you know I’m not in their normal obsessed fan demographic, but I don’t care if mostly teen females are their big record buyers.  I heart them!  And to meet a member was icing on the cake of a crazy weekend!

He likes it when the girls call him Johnny. I like it when you call me maybe.

There is also a crap TON of stuff I didn’t include from the weekend, but my head is still spinning from all that happened.  It was truly a magical time, and I’ll take magical times anytime.  Even if it means mostly missing my birthday/st. pats weekend.  Let’s be honest, most of those weekends aren’t remembered anyway…thanks to Guinness!  So until next year….DANCE!

I’d be a giant in leprechaun village.

 

 

 

Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot #blog

The Dallas Turkey Trot is an extremely popular race in North Texas, but I may be done with it.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great cause and the course is not bad, but there’s just too many people.  It takes place on Thanksgiving morning in downtown Dallas.  “Runners” can choose between the 5K or 8 mile option.  Traditionally a group of our family and friends make our way down there for the 8 mile race.  But we didn’t do it this year, and probably won’t again until they get a coral system or staggered start times, or the like.

Before the race with moms, friends, sis, and 39,995 of our closest co-trotters.

I think they have around 40,000 people who show up.  Most do the 5K.  Many of them are walkers.  Many of them have strollers, or dogs, or strollers with dogs in them (no joke, I actually saw this!).  Many force their way as close to the start line as possible.  The result is a lot of bobbing and weaving.  It does clear up for us 8 milers after we pass the finish for the 5K, but before that it is chaos on the course.  And I have a theory why there are so many people who do this race:  For many of them, this is the only race they’ll do all year, which is fine, but I think that they think if they walk/run 3.1 miles then they can over-eat all Turkey Day guilt-free.  That’s just my working theory tho, I’m still in the research phase.

Tailgating after the race in a scenic location.

That all said, I hope they get it worked out.  It has just gotten too big and out of hand for my taste.  If they can get the start figured out, I’d love to come back to it.  We’ll see what happens.  In the mean time, since I knew I wouldn’t have a speedy time, I took this race not so seriously….as evident in the video below of my sis and I finishing the 8 miler last  year.

I thought the running man was an appropriate dance to do in the middle of a run.  I need to find a robot run to race next.

Peace out Internet!