Awesome Run, Muddy Run & Birthday Fun!

First off, I want to thank everyone again for the birthday wishes. And yay, we finally got to celebrate it over the weekend with a bunch of friends and fams.

Some running buds. “Must be this tall to ride.”

But I’ll get to that…

…The weekend started with one of the best runs I have had in a long time. I woke up early to meet up with WRRC in Dallas. The weather was gorgeous. It was especially lovely as we ran by White Rock Lake.

This sunrise is the kind of stuff runners see every day. Almost makes up for the early alarm clock…almost.

The folks I joined up with said they were doing 10 miles at an 8:45 pace. “OK, sure.” I said. I’m not really training for anything specific, so just running for fun.

Buuut, one thing that WRRC group runs are famous for, is always running further/faster than planned. We ended up going closer to 11 miles at an 8:15 pace.

My GPS was off – hence the pace/distance discrepancy.

I felt really really good on this run. I think I could’ve gone all day long. I wish more runs were like that.

Afterwards, a few of us got breakfast tacos…Natch! I didn’t take a picture of the tacos (they got in my mouth hole too fast), but I did take a pic of a pic of a friend that I spotted on the wall.

Pic of my good friend…his name is Dean. Oh, and also there’s a pic of my pal, Sylvia (who just ran her first 13.1). BTW, how do I get on the Taco Wall of Fame?

The next morning I met more friends for a really muddy trail run. They also surprised me with some birthday presents…I didn’t take a pic, but trust me, they were Klassy.

Anyway, we went about 6 miles and had a few photo ops along the way.

Taking a break. Bummer that I forgot my giant headband.

A couple friends even camped out there the night before. They let us play with their toys.

We got so hammered.

Even though there were some really muddy patches that slowed us down, we eventually finished the run.

The park rangers didn’t like our shenanigans, so they put us in their tree jail.

After the run, guess what happened? Yeah, that’s right…

I had this thought as I was eating.

From there I had to get all cleaned up nice, cause it was finally time for the birthday party! We went to a runner/kid/dog friendly Texas patio bar. It was packed (like I said, gorgeous weather). Because of the crowd, most of us were spread out all over, but it was still great to see everyone!

I was really bad about taking pics – too busy with birthday bevvies socializing. But we did get a few.

That’s a small glass of water.

Ha, but I did take one photo with a friend who complained it was too “normal”. She wanted a more “Scottish pic”. OK, you asked for it.

I needed salt for the tequila.

So all in all it was a really good past few days. It wouldn’t be a bad life if every day you got to go on a run, eat some tacos, then sit on a patio with friends/fams, would it? Need to work on that.

How bout you? Ever have one of those runs where it just felt effortless? Any guesses what my trail runner friends gifted me? Is it patio weather where you are yet?

-Scott

Update on Reflections of a Lost Runner

Almost exactly one year ago, I wrote a post about a little tucked away memorial to a person who had passed away. You can read the post HERE.

I had done some research and found out she was a runner. I pass this memorial on my favorite running route and always pause there.

This is right near the spot where the memorial is located. Cloudy day, but you can kinda see the Dallas skyline in the background.

Since I wrote that post, I’ve gotten a few messages from friends of her. If you read the comments in it, you’ll see some of them. It seems she was very much loved. I’m glad to hear that she made such an impression on people…So much so that they are still searching for her online so many years after her passing (That’s how they come across my blog post). That said, I still had many questions about who this person was…

…Fast forward to this week, and I received another message. One of her friends shared some more details about her. Here is what she wrote:

“Scott – I was a good friend of Sabra’s and her sister, Monica. I met them through mutual friends and became close to them when I joined Luke’s Locker’s marathon training programs in 2000. They’d been running marathons for years, and when I joined the group they took me under their wings and helped me prepare to run my first half-marathon (White Rock half). Although they were both much faster runners than I was, they were so sweet to run at my pace to keep me company and give me pep talks. I told them both at the time that I’m not sure if I would have made it through that first race without their support. We were also good/social friends outside of running. Sabra’s death was tragic – a motorcycle accident caused by a driver who ran a red light.

She was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside, just like her sister, who was her best friend. Monica spearheaded planning for the memorial bench that you’ve discovered, and a number of us running friends contributed to its erection at the park. The phrase on the bench was Monica’s idea and it’s absolutely perfect. So many friends spent hours – years – training with Sabra at the lake and we wanted a place where friends and family could come to visit her. I shed a few tears of sadness when I stumbled upon your post, but also a few tears of happiness to know that her memory lives on at the lake and that others have discovered the special spot where she spent a lot of time and touched so many lives.”

Panorama mode

I’m thankful that she reached out to me, and that I am then able to reach out to you with this information. But I’m most thankful that Sabra’s friends know that even though she’s gone, people are still thinking of her…even people that never met her.

No questions today, but if you have any thoughts on this, please share in the comments.

PS – If you ever run at White Rock Lake in Dallas, and want to know where this memorial is, holla at me and I’ll fill you in.

Race Recap: Abby’s Run for Dandy Walker 5k

I hadn’t raced a 5k in quite a while.  I wasn’t sure how I’d do…turns out I did aight.  I didn’t PR, but still had a decent time (for me) – 22:08.  Good enough at this race for 5th place overall, 1st in my division!

I wasn’t the only one able to represent – I had a ton of friends who also got medals (too many to give shout outs too here)! Including the overall winner.  The best part was that when my friends and I saw each other on various parts of the course, we’d shout encouragement to one another.

I’m #5. #1 & #4 are friends of mine.  Go team!

I was happy, because if you read my race PREVIEW, then you’d know that I wanted to do well.  The reasons are that my friend is the race director, and also because the race supports a good cause – raising money to help those with Dandy Walker syndrome.  The race is named for a friend’s daughter who has DW.

This race is fairly small (I think about 200 runners), but it grows each year.  In fact, they raised over $22,000!!!! Amazing!

Besides the many many friends I knew who were running the race, there were also a bunch volunteering.  So I had several great surprises when running along the course I’d see them standing at their station and they’d give me words of encouragement.  That was helpful!

A small sampling of friends I saw that day!!!

The race itself involved a two lap course.  I’m not a fan of lap races (it’s always such a tease to pass by the finish line halfway though), but I’ve run this course before, so I was expecting it.  It was also super windy – like 35mph gusts, but I was expecting that too.  So I did a mile warm up and then did my dynamic stretching drills.

When the race started, people took off sprinting like mad.  I’ve run enough races to know that if I remained in control of my pace, that most of those sprinters would soon be behind me.  And by the first mile, they were.  By now there were the four leaders ahead of me, and I was in a pack with two other dudes.  The start of the second lap we hit the wall of wind.  I tried to keep my pace into it hoping to pull away from them.  I did.  A half mile from the finish, a volunteer friend told me I was by myself.  But I didn’t want anyone to entertain thoughts of catching me, so I picked up the pace and let the wind help me cruise to the finish!

After, I ran backwards on the course looking for friends to help them finish.  I found a few, but then saw one who didn’t have anyone around him.  I ran with him to the finish.  I thought nothing of it, but he was really appreciative.  I’m glad I did it, he finished strong!

My prize for winning my age group was some movie passes and a medal hand painted by a kid with Dandy Walker.

One of a kind!

I was fortunate enough to win my age group in this race last year too, so I’m pumped to be able to add another one of their unique medals to the collection.  I definitely treasure these ones!!!

How bout you?  Ever show up at a race and see a ton of friends there?  Do you encourage other runners during a race?  How cool is that medal?  

-Scott

Social Run & Mumford & Sons Concert

Last night was pretty epic.  The Mumford & Sons concert was amazing.  We had lawn seats to this sold out show, which is nice cause I could wander around (and dance around).  I couldn’t believe how many friends I ran into at the show.  Sooo many, and many of which I hadn’t seen in months or years.  My sis came to town for it, my mystery brother made a rare appearance, and even the ‘rents were there (thanks to them for driving, btw).  Here’s a few of the pics:

 

My immediate fams.

Ran into one of my running buddies.

It was a beautiful night with beautiful people.  Funny thing is that when I went to the gym today, I was pretty dang sore.  I don’t know if it was the combination of a week’s worth of workouts, all the dancing, staying up past my bed time, the tailgate chips and brews, or a combo of all of em.  My whole body was pretty achy breaky.  I’m hoping it goes away at tonight’s social run.  A bunch of friends will be at the social run too, and I hope to run with them and shake out the soreness.  If I can do that, guess what the next day is…Rest Day, what what!

Anyways, the show really was amazing.  The crowd stood up the entire concert.  Nobody sat down.  The band even did a few songs acoustically with one mic, and the whole audience had to shush to hear them…and guess what…they actually did shush!  I couldn’t believe out of all those thousands and thousands of people who were drinking funny things and smoking funny things, nobody was jerking it up by making a bunch of noise during that set.

Of course, they ended the final encore with The Cave, which I still sing in my head when I run sometimes, it really gets me going.

Check em out if you get a chance!

Peace out internet!

Disney Dopey Training (Week 1 Done)

If you follow this blog, then you probably know that I’m training for the Dopey Challenge and I’m following the Hal Higdon plan for this event.  The first week came and went pretty well.  The weekday runs were pretty uneventful, then came the weekend back to back runs.  The Saturday mileage is still pretty low – Only had to run 3 miles.  Then on Sunday, the plan called for 13.

I backtracked the plan, but it officially started last week.

I met up with a couple friends at White Rock Lake in Dallas.  I like to do my long runs down there because it’s scenic, there’s facilities, and there’s lots of other active people out and about.  My friend Robert was one of the friends.  He’s been getting into running more and more lately.  I was happy for him because he said it was his first time looping the lake without stopping!  My other friend Meg was acting as our pace coach (just under 9 min miles).  She’s a great runner and probably could’ve left us in the dust, but she’s coming back from injury, and she’s nice.

Anyway, the lake is a 9 mile loop, but there’s a secret Batman detour that we took to add an extra mile.  So after those 10 miles, Rob and Meg had to go, but it only left me to run about 2.5 by myself.  I started off taking a new path for me.  There’s the main path, but off to the side at certain places there’s a mystery path that I’ve never run on…until now.  It pretty much ran parallel to the main path, but went through more wooded areas and had less people on it.  I’ll have to explore more of it in the future.

Back on the main path I had less than a mile to go when I paused my gps watch to grab some water and swag from a local radio station set up on the trail.  If they post the photos, I’ll snag em and share em on this blog.  It was cool because I got a whole swag bag for a training run, just like I would at a race.  Score!

Only problem is that I forgot to restart my watch when I started running again.  I went at least half a mile more that will never be documented.  Ha!  No matter, a little extra is good, right?  For my last stretch, I took a side road off the path.  I see bikers go up this road quite a bit, but I have only done it once…in a race.  This side excursion was very basically a big hill.  People go up it apparently to get some extra work in.  It definitely got my legs and lungs burning.  But I’m glad I did because at the top of the hill it had a great view of the Dallas skyline over the lake.

I felt pretty good during this run.  It helped having friends to chat with along the way.  But what really helped was the slightly cooler temps.  Don’t get me wrong, it was still warm.  Probably around 80’s at sunrise, but that’s much better than it’s been around here.  I felt strong at the end of the run, unlike two weeks prior when it was a battle to get my 12 done.  I’m hoping this weekend was a small taste of what’s to come!