Katy Trail 5k Recap – Hawt Run, Dope Party & Epic Photos!

The other day was the Katy Trail 5k. This is a hugely popular race in Dallas. I hadn’t registered for this race before it sold out, but I got hooked up with a bib at the last minute from my man K-Rob. Thanks dude, it was a blast!!!

Pre-race group below, double photobombs up top.

The Katy Trail is a highly popular running spot around here. It’s 3.5 miles long and it really is pretty nice. In fact, last week after the Bloomin 4 Mile Race, some of us went to KT to get in some extra miles.

Runnin free down the trail…or was it up the trail?

This race takes place on a school night at 7pm. I had planned to take it easy, after all it was in the 90’s – also I had already run 5 miles this day and done a track workout the day before.

My heart shaped butt sweat from the track workout.

But of course, when the horn sounded I was off like a prom dress! Unfortunately, the heat and previous miles took their toll…legs felt heavy…There would be no PR this day – not even close! But I’ll take the results, considering it all.

Official Results: 22:17, 7:10 per mile, 14th in Age Group, 132/3622 Overall.

If you want to see a 5 second video of me crossing the finish line, do so HERE!

Post Race – I’m glad Josh fixed my sun-washed-out head in photoshop. Looks totally natural.

But the reason this race is so popular is the after-party. Local restaurants bring out a ton of good food and drink – and it’s all free!!!! Besides the grub, there’s also live music and tons of give-aways. And there may have even been a human centipede pyramid or two.

I had hoped to be a top.

My buddy Logan won the race in around 15:30. Not too shabby, I guess. 😉 But I bet he’s more proud that he made it into one of my famous leg-pop photos…

Logan and his short-time fiance, Amanda & me and my long-time friend, Tahressa.

Since it was an evening race, pretty soon the sun was down. Luckily we had time for a couple more photo ops before heading home to slizzeeep!

Good times with these fools.

Smart move on the free photo-booth with your logo…Well played, Nike.

I had only run this race once before a few years, and to be honest, I thought it was a bit unorganized then. However, this time ’round I had a blasty blast!!! I get now why it’s so popular ’round here. I’ll be back!

How bout you? Ever run an evening race? Why do runners lurve a good post race party so much? What is the shape of your butt’s sweat stain?

-Scott

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

Race Discount for YOU, Check My Flow, & It’s (hopefully) Race Day!

It’s been a good week of runs for me, I think even Kanye would agree…

Josh is excellent at photoshop.

A TNSR run is always fun.

Trying a new running form.

Tho the day before’s run on the track was whack.

The clouds and the noises they made were scary, but I got the run dun before they cried on me.

But the day before that was pretty phat.

A baby run and a papa run.

OK, that’s enough freestylin. I gotta focus on this weekend – RACE TIME! Well, I hope. My last two races have been cancelled due to massive Texas storms. And as I write this it is storming again. Hopefully it will clear up before the race.

I was lucky enough to get a free entry to this race – Rock the Block 10k. That said, I’m dreading it a little. I ran this race last year and wasn’t a fan of the course.

Last year’s poster. The route hasn’t changed. Who likes an out and back – I mean, honestly?

But at least I know what to expect since I’m familiar with the route.

And we’re off! -Photo from Dallasnews.com

And hopefully the rain clouds will help keep it kewl this year – last year it was friggin hawt!!!! But I still ran a PR (with a horrible positive split) of 46:00.

Just a bit sweaty at the end.

I’m going for a negative split and another PR, so come back in a couple days for the recap!!!

Other than that, the fine folks at Spartan Race have sent me a discount code to share with you:

They do these obstacle races all over the USA (and I think internationally too), and they have different distances you can choose from…

But hurry up and use the code MEMORIAL because I believe it expires pretty soon!

So there ya go, kiddo. A week that was pretty on fleek. And now I best be goin cause my rhyme is done flowin.

How bout you? Running this holiday (US) weekend? Ever run a Spartan Race…or going to? Do you have any race predictions?

-Scott

Running Vampires, Throwin Shade, and More Blogger Shout-Outs!

Whew, thangs bean bizzay round hurrah. Trying to ketchup.

Firsty, I’ve had some good runs recently…specially the ones with friends.

My friend Josh totally did not photoshop this in any way. None of us have shadows because we’re vampires.

It’s always fun runnin with TNSR. If you’re ever in North Texas on a Thursday, you should join us!

What the sign says.

We run, and then hang out for a hot minute to talk (about running).

Fire can’t stop us from throwin shade.

I also re-incorporated track workouts into my routine. Most of the time I’m going these solo, buutttttt to my surprise, I had a run bud meet me for some 400’s! Makes the pukey feeling go by faster.

Sometimes in life it just feels like we’re running in circles.

Felt good to shake the legs out with some speed work. But it’s also fun to do some long slow runs. This week I met up again with WRRC to get the miles in.

Not trainin for anything specific, just trying to keep in shape.

And of course I’m still doing my cross training with weightlifting and yoga.

Males are in the minority apparently.

And I have to end with a shout out to the latest blogger friends who donated to my charity fundraiser for the Chicago Marathon.

Check out these dope people: LifeBetweenTheMiles, MarathonStateofMind, & VeryRach!

I’m very close to my goal amount and I couldn’t have gotten this far without everyone who has pitched in. Thank you so much you guys!!!!!

If you’d like to donate, you can do so HERE. To see a totally high tech special effects video I made of why you should dontate, click HERE.

How bout you? Doing any speed work? Do you prefer running alone or with others? Has anyone else heard if they got in Chicago yet?

-Scott

Free Race Photos! Woo to the Hoo!

I like the recent trend I’ve been seeing here and there of races giving you the photos for free! I’m sure it’s included somehow in the registration fee, but it’s much better than them asking for $30 a photo.

If you read my Hot Chocolate 15k Recap, then you know I ran the race, duh. But after I wrote it, they sent me the race photos they said they took of me. Here they are:

Before the race with run buds Julie and Mike!

During the race. Looks like I was feelin it.

Apparently I had time for a wardrobe change and facelift during the race.

And also gender reassignment surgery.

Oh look, there I am next to my yellow shirted clone.

Finally, at the finish line!

When you think about it, it’s just smart to give out the photos. Then the race photogs know that they’re getting paid instead of hoping to sell a few prints. And since they put a bug on the pics, it’s free advertising every time someone posts them to social media, or ahem, blogs using them.

Speaking of which, a photog associated with the Key West Half Marathon later saw my BLOG RACE RECAP and was kind enough to send me a photo he took of me! So cool!

Boom Shaka-laka!

This is like the 4th time in the past few months that the races have been sending out free photos. Gotta love it! The others that come to mind are the Dallas 13.1 I PR’d also sent Free Photos, as well as the Abby’s Run 5k where I won my age group! who posted All The Pics! Glad to be able to memorialize those races!

I hope this trend continues!

How bout you? Any free race photos lately? Do you even want your race pics? Ever had gender reassignment surgery?

-Scott

Hot Chocolate 15k Recap – Trains, Hills, & a New PR!!!

The Dallas Hot Chocolate 15k was my 2nd ever race at that distance. And I’m glad to report that it went much better than the first one. In fact, I earned my shiny chocolate themed medal by running a new PR!

The medal looks like a chocolate bar, but it tastes like brass.

There was supposed to be sold out with 13,000 total people running the 5k and 15k races. That means a lot of traffic getting to the event. Luckily my friend, Jewely talked me into taking the train down with friends rather than drive.

Of course we needed a pic on the choo choo.

We definitely saved a lot of time and stress by taking riding the rail. All we had to do was sit there and watch the world go by.

You can’t take a selfie around us without getting photobomed, duh!

As we got closer to the race, the train got more and more crowded. We were lucky to have gotten on at an earlier stop, when seats were still available.

Train’s getting full. Luckily they had stripper poles for people to hold on to.

The temps that morning were in the mid-40’s, but with a 10-15 mph wind it felt like 35 degrees!!! So when we got to the event, we stayed warm before the race by staying indoors!

B4 da race. I never understood arm sleeves. Are they for people that don’t care about cold shoulders?

The 5k started first. But due to traffic and such, people were late. The race was nice enough to wait for them, but that also meant the 15k would start like 15 minutes late. It was not fun standing in the cold waiting for the starting horn to blow! But eventually, we were off!

My run buds Clay and Dawn were on the course cheering. Clayton got this shot of me. Dueces!

The course itself was TOUGH – lotsa hills! Most people don’t think of Dallas as hilly, but this race made sure to find as many as they could!

At mile 5ish, we had about a pretty steep incline for about half a mile. At the top of the hill, some spectators had set up a whiskey station to give shots to the runners. Haha, with the pain I was feeling, I was tempted to take one, but decided to plug along instead.

The red parts are my slowest sections, coincidentally, they were also on big hills. Ha, when I saw that hill around mile 8 after turning the corner, I dropped a few choice words aloud!

And can I just say, I love the support of the running community. Towards the end of the race, a few of us strangers started encouraging each other with words of encouragement. It helped us finish strong!

You can watch a short video of my and my new besties crossing the finish line BY CLICKING HERE!

I wanted to run a sub 7:40 mile pace, and I did!!! ~ 7:39 per mile ~ a full 20 seconds faster per mile than my last 15k! That came out to more than a 2 minute PR!Also, I’ve said this before, but I hate my age group. I finished in the top 3% overall, but in the top 15% of my age group. Grrrr, I can’t wait to get to a new age group next month!!!

After da race with our sweet rewards.

After the race, they had a fun little after-party going on with a DJ, chocolate treats, etc. Here’s a 6 second video recap I made:

To be honest, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, so all the chocolate was a bit too much for me to handle. But on the way home I decided there should be some celebrating with a grown-up treat…

A chocolate stout still counts as chocolate, right?

In the end, I was sassified with the results – especially considering the wind, hills, & not knowing how to pace this distance. And most importantly, it was a fun time!

How bout you? LIke that bling? Gotta sweet tooth or a beer tooth? Ever ride a choo choo train?

-Scott

Proof That I Ran the Oktoberfest 5k

If you missed my post about my 5k PR last week well don’t fret. You can either click that link in the previous sentence or you can skip it and just look at some of the official race photos that were just released.

Why is that kid in the yellow shirt falling over?

I usually take bad race photos, but there’s actually a few decent ones here.

So long lobster-backs!

Yes, these are previews, and I do buy race photos when it’s a special occasion. But this was one of a million 5k’s I’ve run. And I wouldn’t mind getting a few of the non watermaked ones, but at $20, no thanks.

My secret to running fast is to keep your mouth open so you catch bugs – instant protein!

I read about a race in Cali that all the photos were either included in the registration, or were like $5 bucks a piece. Much more reasonable. I wish more races offered that.

Deuces.

Anyway, I thought I’d end this post with my favorite photo of me from the race. This was one of several they tagged under my bib number…

I look like I finished strong!!!

There you go. A few of the pics they tagged me in. Ha, hope you enjoyed them.

How bout you? Ever take a decent race pic? How great do I look in that last pic? Any other questions or captions to the pics?

-Scott

Race Photos (not all bad)

The other week I ran in a 5k (Abby’s Run for Dandy Walker Syndrome).  I wanted to do well because I know the race directors and the race was raising funds for a good cause.  And I did do pretty good – 5th overall and 1st in my division.  You can read the recap HERE.

In the recap you can see some other photos from the day (including the super awesome medal).

Anyway, they recently posted the official race photos, so I thought I’d share the ones that have me in them (because I’m so shy and modest).  Click on them to enlarge…

Milling about before the start – I’m off to the side behind the flag pole talking to my friend Pepsi. Yes, her actual name is Pepsi. I guess her parents were fans of sugar drinks???

And we’re off! I’m in there somewhere. BTW, none of those determined kids were able to sustain that pace past 50 yards. So yes, I had to do some weaving to get around them.

First mile.  I was wishing that guy wasn’t trying to draft off me.

Managed half a smirk for the camera. That dude behind me is wondering why I’m ahead of him – we have the same shoes after all!  Pepsi is back there in the hat.  She would’ve been next to me, but her hat fell off at the start and she had to run after it.  Yes, her real name is Pepsi.

The blue-shirt-same-shoes-side-mouth-breather dude is no longer in my photos!  You can however spot Pepsi (white hat) behind the silver grocery getter about to turn down the home stretch (2nd female finisher). Yes, her real name is Pepsi.

At the finish – All alone in 5th place!

Award ceremony – Trying not to get my race director friend (Ann) sweaty in our hug.

Yay! I got a photo with Abby (who the race is named for) and her mom. Ann photobombed us. Not sure why I’m standing bow-legged.

The next one is not an official race photo.  A friend snapped it and emailed it to me later…

I’m all thumbs.

So there they are, the long lost race photos (from two weeks ago).  Not too bad – compared to how I usually look (not flattering).  And it’s really cool of them to send them to us for free!!!!  Such a great event all around!

How bout you?  Any recent race photos?  What do you think the dude behind me the first mile was thinking?  Do you know anyone named Pepsi?  Why do kids always line up at the front of the race (I mean, come on)?

-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!

Head for the Cure 5k Review

Sorry for the delay in this review, I’m sure you were holding your breath.  Exhale, it’s here.  This 5k was alright.  There were more people than I expected – over 1000.  The weather was unseasonably cool, though a tad windy, but not too bad.  The course was relatively flat, save a few hills just after mile one.  The course was fairly scenic too, as the last half of the course meandered on a paved trail through the Oak  Point Nature Preserve.  I’d never been there before, and the part of it we ran through was nice.  I’ll have to explore that park some more on future runs.

Takin it to da bridge!

As you can see in the photo, I wore my Flying Pirate 1/2 Marathon shirt.  I was so happy to do so – you see, my flight home from that race resulted in my luggage being lost…for nearly a MONTH!  I finally was able to retrieve it the night before the race, and reunited with some of my fav running clothes, along with my new shirt, I was joyed to put them on for this race!

Hoping the shirt would give me wings too.

Anykitandkaboodle, the combo of the weather, the course, some secret inspiration, having my gear back, and having done some track work, I was able to turn in a decent finish.  I came across at 22:12 – little over 7 minute miles.  I was 4th in my age group and 29th or 30th overall.  This gives me hope, because it’s 20 seconds faster than my last 5k a month ago, and I had been sick the week leading up to this race.  I guess being sick was like a taper?  Taper for a 5k – I wonder if I can sell people on that idea?  Haha!

 

I don’t normally run with my arms crossed – I was reaching to stop my stopwatch at the finish line.

The race is called Head for the Cure because it raises funds for brain cancer research.  I guess it affects more people than I thought because there were lots of signs on the course and people wearing shirts dedicated to who they were running for.  I hope it was considered a success for them.

Anyway, not much more to say…just another 5k.  Yes, that does rhyme.  Until next time, enjoy some extra photos from the race.  Peacey peace!