Lots of Christmas Runs, Stage Shows, Wild Yoga & Randomness Galore

It’s been non-stop gangbusters lately. Let me try and ketchup…

What am I up to? Oh, just making it rain, dear.

Of course, Christmas was upon us, and so the kiddos were amped.

1/3 of these folks had a wet diaper. Can you guess which one?

But the holidays don’t mean my legs get a break. And on Xmas Eve I met up with a big group of local runners for a morning run.

Getting my Zen on before the run.

Christmas morning I went on a solo run. I saw a surprising amount of people at the park.

For my long run this week, I got in a half marathon. It was really really windy.

At the last minute my run bud messaged me and said she’d run with me. So glad she did. It made the miles go by much faster. We didn’t take a pic, but here’s us at last month’s Thanksgiving Day race.

Such a pill…gram.

 

While we were at the show, the grandparents took the kids to the zoo…

Penguins is practically chickens.

Free turtle rides!

The next morning I met up with some more friends for a trail run. We got in 6+ miles, and even mixed in a little yoga…

Not sure if these are actual poses or not. But there’s no rules in yoga, right?

But it doesn’t stop there. Next we took the kiddos to see Disney Live…

Pirates vs Princesses. Guess which team I’m on.

Ha, I gotta say that it was drastically different than the ‘Once’ show – a lot less ‘F-bombs’.

Anywhoodle, that night my friends messaged me that they wanted to go on a second run for the day, but this time it was around a fancy neighborhood that is famous for their Christmas lights.

Tree Pose.

Look, it’s Santa flying! I know him!

I need to have these green spots checked out.

So there it is, kids. The reason for my blog-cation. It’s been a crazy train time around here. Hopefully things will relax just a bit, but it has been a fun ride!

How bout you? Crazy Holidaze? Gettin your workouts in? Any fun group runs?

-Scott

Runner vs Dog…AGAIN!

A while back I posted about a dog encounter on my run, along with my tips for those situations. This morning I got to use my own advice again.

It was early this morning.  Still dark.  I was 3 miles into my 5 miler.  All of the sudden about 20 yards in front of me these two loose dogs that I hadn’t seen in the darkness just went nuts barking at me.

I immediately paused my gps watch running.  But I did not run away.  Whosever house I was in front of had left their trash and recycling bins by the sidewalk for collection.  I began pounding on the bins to make loud noises.  I yelled at the dogs in a loud deep voice.

One was obviously the leader, and the other stayed behind him.  I did not pay the other any attention, I focused on the leader.

Photo break – here’s another neighbor’s house. He likes this time of year, I guess.

Now they didn’t immediately retreat, but they did stop in their tracks.  We had a good ole fashioned stand off for a few minutes (or at least it seemed like).  Neither of us budged…they kept barking and I kept yelling at them and banging on the bin.  I’m sure I must’ve woke up some of the neighbors.  I did not care.  I was secretly hoping to wake up the owners of the dogs (if they lived in one of the houses there).

I then took my jacket up in my arms stretched over my head to make myself look bigger.  I started to take steps toward them, and the leader held strong.  The other dog backed up some into the street, and luckily a car came from behind it that spooked it.  When I took more steps, the other dog ran off.  Then the leader finally submitted when I took a few aggressive steps toward them.  I picked up a newspaper to throw at them, but after a defiant final bark, he retreated with the other.

I waited a few seconds to make sure they didn’t return, dropped the paper, and ran in another direction.

I’ve encountered countless dogs on my runs, but this was the first time I faced a pair.  They definitely took longer to back down, but they did.

I know I’ve asked this before, but what do you do when confronting a hound?  Ever come across a pack?  Ever banged on a neighbor’s trash can at 6 am?