Week Workouts, Boston Fundraiser, & Bestie Visit

I’ve been crazy busy this week, but workout-wise it’s been kind of a weak week.  I’m blaming part of that on the weather.  What up spring?  Storms one day, crazy winds the next, temps in the 80’s one day, then temps in the 30’s another day.  What up?

All I’ve managed to get in this week is one yoga class, one weight sesh, one doggy walk, one run.  And on my run I must’ve stepped wrong because 3.25 miles in my lower calf said, “no mas.”  I was able to make it to four, but sheesh.  Luckily my blogging buddy – fitnessmeetsfrosting.com had sent me some Rocktape for my birthday!  Thanks Amy!

I have the exact same running form as the gal on the box.

So now I have it taped up and I’m off to a social run tonight to give it a go.  I’m also going cause one of my elite runner buddies – Logan Sherman – is going to be there as he’s doing a fundraiser for Boston Police who work the marathon course.

You know you’re fast when fitness magazines write articles about you.

If you’re interested in donating, or want more info – here’s the LINK.

Other than that, I had a pretty good visit from one of my besties who was in from North Crackalaka.  Of course, I took her to get some TACOS!

Steps: 1. Open face. 2. Insert taco. 3. Repeat.

She also got to visit the fam and play with the rugrats.

Then we went to a Texas patio bar.

Christie wants to join you in a virtual drink.

Which led to this sort of klassy behavior.

Judging from the photos, my mouth is agape alot.

All in all it was a good visit.  Hopefully she’ll be able to come back again soon!

Final patio selfie…because her hair was on fire.

So there you go.

How bout you?  Crazy weather?  Doing anything (running, fundraising, etc.) for Boston?  Who wants to meet up at the patio bar later?

-Scott

Almost Race Day & Bestie in Town!

I just got back from my packet pickup for my 5k this weekend.  I gotta say, pretty nice little swag bag – even a bear of local honey!!!  That will save me a trip to the farmers’ market.  At least until I run out of farmers, that is. 😉

It’s been since Jan since I’ve raced, so I’m excited.  Some people are curious how I can be excited about “only” a 5k, since I just did the Dopey Challenge (48.6 miles in 4 straight days).  Ya know what, I learned long ago to respect each distance.  None is better than another.  They are all different and all good.

And I never want to be a running snob.  I’ve seen people in tears at the finish of a marathon and at the finish of a 5k, alike.  I have friends that run 100 mile races too.  It’s all running.  It’s all good.

Anyway, I got in a good run today and a good weight session.  Friday, it has been predicted, that I shall none run, but rest up and foam roll instead.  Speaking of which, I know kids learn by watching, and I guess I’m teaching the little girl a few things.

She’s seen me put myself through so much pain on this thing, she decided to give it a go.

And more exciting news, one of my besties is in town.  It has been exactly one year since I saw her last.  She lives in Raleigh, NC.  I was there with my sis last April to run the Flying Pirate Half Marathon in OBX.  Still my favorite race experience to date.  You can see my recap HERE.

With my sis and my sis from another miss.

Unfortunately she’s here to see her mom who underwent emergency surgery today.  I won’t get into details, but hopefully she will be all good.  I wish it was another circumstance, but it will be nice to see my friend.

How bout you?  Anyone racing this weekend?  Any good race swag lately?  Is it wrong to teach kids to foam roll (it hurts so good)?

-Scott

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?

20 Miles, Reflections, & Tacos

For my Disney Dopey Challenge Hal Higdon Training, the weekend called for runs of 5 miles on Saturday, and 15 on Sunday.  And that’s what I did, for a nice 20 mile weekend total!  The weather didn’t make it easy though.  I got running before sunrise both days, but that didn’t help much.  Saturday was around 80 with about 90% humidity.  Sunday was a little cooler – around 70, but with 90% humidity.  Both days I was a sweaty mess!  In fact, it was commented to me that it looked like I had jumped in the lake.  My clothes (and shoes) are still trying to dry.  After that, I felt I deserved a treat….TACOS!

Migas Taco from Torchy’s Tacos. Here’s 1 of about 4 that I ate!

For the Sunday run I met up with some peeps to run around White Rock Lake.  Some of them I knew, some I now know.  You get to know people when you spend a couple hours running together, you know?  And it definitely makes it easier to run these longer distances when you have people to do it with.  That’s one of the reasons I go to WRL to run.  It’s a 9 mile loop with TONS of other runners.  I always enjoy the head nods when you see people who are going the opposite direction as you, especially when you see the same people 2 or 3 times!

We also took a few little batman routes to get us some extra mileage.  I was thrilled when we finished one loop and were at 12 miles instead of 9.  I was thrilled for two reasons.  1) I only had 3 more to go to get to 15.  2) It was my one running friend’s 1st time going that far!  And we did it with a decent pace too!  Somewhere around 8:40 miles.

After the run, I went to a bench that I use to help me stretch.  Under the back side of the bench, kind of hidden, is this small plaque:

Like I said, I use this bench to help me stretch each time I run there.  And I have seen this plaque before, but this time I really looked at it.  “A place to go to think of a friend”  I wonder what exactly that means?  Is that something this Sabra Frazer said often?  Was this her spot to sit and think of friends?  Or is this where her loved ones come to think about her?

And who is this person?  What happened to her?  It says she died in 2003.  She was only 35.  Curious, I did a Google search.  I can’t find many details…except this:  It appears she ran in races.  Some of her race results popped up on pages like Athlinks.com.  But I can’t find much else about who she was, or what happened to her.  If anyone has any information about her, I’d love to hear it.  Please tell me if you know anything!

The bench that this plaque is under is curious in itself.  Instead of facing the lake, it is facing the trail where all the runners are.  Thousands of people go by this memorial every day.  I doubt not more than a handful have ever noticed it.

I’m guessing like many of us runners in the area, this is where she came to train.  I’m also guessing her family put this here so they can come and sit and watch all the runners and remember how she would run past this same spot so many times.  So I sat on the bench for a little while and did what the plaque says to do.  Yes, it is a very good place to go to think of a friend.