Running Margaritaville & NRDD (National Running Day, Duh)

I’ve been absent from these blog parts, but not by choice. As I often do, I wrote some posts & saved the drafts for future publishing. But when I logged in next, they were GONE! All that genius, lost forever. Sorry, world.

So lemme ketcheweup…Buffett Day was a wild success, like always.

Some of the SFW highlights.

This is my abfab fave day of the entire year. I try to explain it to people who’ve never been, but I’m learning that it’s indescribable. No matter how much I sell it, people who reluctantly finally show up to a tailgate always look around wide-eyed and say, “I had no idea it was like this! I wish I knew! This is awesome!!!”

We see Capn’ Jack Sparrow every single year.

Everyone seems to assume it’s a bunch of geriatrics sitting in lawn chairs drinking green tequila drinks. Everyone shouldn’t assume so much.

I almost wore this same thing.

Every year it’s like a competition to out-do everyone else creatively-tropically.

Mermaids get thirsty too.

And everybody is so chill – no politics, no drama, no greed…everyone shares everything (especially bevvies).

Shotski!

Making friends around a neon octopus.

This year got a bit cray cray. They stopped enforcing the strict parking rules – so anyone and everyone was setting up canopies, boats, etc. wherever they darn well pleased.This really condensed the space and it felt like one big back yard. Love it!

Caught taking a pirate lady selfie. I need that leg chalice.

Another thing that’s changed over the years is my Buffett crew. We had a huge regular group (not talking bathroom habits). But over the years most of them have faded away. Kind of sad, but c’est la vie dansante.

Buffett4Life friends and a svelte merman.

But like in regular life, most of these people have been replaced with runner friends. I still miss my old crew, but not much I can do if they don’t even respond to invites. It’s all good, runners be crazy, yo!

Runner friend unicorn and a zebra lady.

Someone let us drive their land boat.

Free lap dances from “pretty mike”.

I welcomed several runner friends to the Parrothead phlock.

And for those of you paying attention, why yes, that is my Key West Half Marathon race tech tee under my ultimate party Hawaiian shirt.

Perfect shirt for a perfect day.

And here’s a pro tip: Many people just come for the party, but for those of us who like his music and enjoy the concerts, don’t buy tickets in advance. You can always get some for free/cheap at the tailgate from other parrotheads. My dad and I got tickets for $10.

Boom-shaka-laka.

And I’ll leave it at this – one of the newbies who showed up posted this on her facebook page:

“Soooo…yesterday was my first time at a Jimmy Buffett tailgate party, and it’s taken a good 24 hours for me to mentally recover from what I witnessed there. There were things I simply cannot unsee. And I can’t wait until next year to do it all over again!”

OK, back to running. I’m sure everyone did something for National Running Day. Me was no different. I met up for a local running store’s social run followed by free breakfast tacos!!!

Miles and Smiles!

I got to see a lot of old running friends. It was great! And I’ve got some more good running news, but you’ll have to wait for tomorrow for that…I try to keep these posts more visual than wordy, and I see my word count is growing. Till next time!

How bout you? Anything special for NRD? Can you tell we had fun this week? Are you intrigued or frightened of Buffett tailgates based on my pics?

-Scott

Dopey Challenge – To Costume or Not?

Since the Disney Dopey Challenge (5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2) is only a few days away, I have a dilemma:  Should I wear a costume during the first 3 races?

I since the last race is a full marathon, I want to save as much energy for that as I can for it.  So that means NOT racing the first 3 events.  This can be hard to do – once you line up at the start, it can be difficult to fight the adrenaline and excitement and competitiveness.  But I still have hopes of PR’ing in the 26.2, so I must resist the urge to go hard the early races.

To do this, I thought about wearing costumes.  I usually wear costumes when I run in races that I just want to have fun in, to make sure I don’t take it too seriously.  Here’s a few examples…BTW, I went through a mud/obstacle race phase a couple years ago…

Pirate say, “Fire arrgh bad!”

Hippies love mud.

 

Firefighter Scott – in case of emergency.

Can you guess which one of us is the real Santa Clause?

Updated pirate – ear ring and hook!

I went as a Parrothead for this race…and in real life.

So, do you think I should go for costumes?  Check a box  Yes___  No___

If yes, what should I be?  I do have some Mickey Ears and giant Mickey Gloves…

My mickey mitts…do not ask about the rest of my outfit…

The official themes of the races are: 5k – Pluto, 10k – Minnie, 13.1 – Donald, 26.2 – Mickey, 13.1+ 26.2 – Goofy, All 4 races – Dopey.  I could go off of those, or be more creative.  Anything Disney related goes – any character, ride, movie, etc.  Or I could be a tourist.  I also have a whole box of years past Halloween costumes to pick through.  Cross dressing is OK too. The options are endless, but we’re running short on time. 

Please, give me your ideas/suggestions for race costumes!  What’s your fav thing Disney?  Let’s brainstorm!

National Mudrunner’s Association Mud Run

Summer 2012, shortly before the end of the world, I did yet another mud run.  This one was catchily titled – National Mudrunner’s Association Mud Run, or something like that.  It was kind of a cluster.

I registurd because I had a discount through Schwaggle.  Why not?  Could be fun.  But it was rough.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m rooting for these guys to be successful, but the first time out of the gate for them was not so much successful.  Besides the unfortunate title, the course was kind of jacked.  Right at the start you have a few obstacles, then  you basically go on a trail run for the next three or so miles, then you do a bunch of obstacles right at the end.  So no, the obstacles were not spread out along the course.  And no, the course was not marked very well.  Tons of people kept taking wrong turns.  At one point a group of us ran a half mile out of the way before someone told us to turn around.  Berry strange.

I went as a Parrothead for this race.

And the obstacles, oh mama let me tell you.  Some were very difficult, which is fine, but I skipped several of them because the lines were insanely long.  To give you an idea, it took me like an hour and a half to do this 3 or so mile race – and that’s with skipping the obstacles with the Really Long Lines.  Too bad to, cause one was a zip line that drops you in a lake – but talking to people in line, they said they had been waiting over an hour!  No thanks.  I’ll head to the post race beers, thanks.

Free beer helped!

Not to mention that when I arrived at the race, they had run out of goody bags and the t-shirts you were supposed to get for registering.  But they tried to make good.  They sent me a shirt later on after I emailed them asking for one.  And they sent me a coupon for a discount on an upcoming race from their series.  I didn’t register tho.  Like I said, hopefully they’ll get all the kinks worked out and maybe I’ll try them again down the road.

Mud Medal (it all didn’t smell like mud)

The reason I don’t go to new restaurants is that I know it usually takes them a while to figure out how to make it run smoothly.  I’d rather go then.  I should apply the same logic to races I register for.  Best of luck to them tho!  Hope to see you down the mud trail.

Peace out home slice!