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

Rudolph Run 5k ~ New PR, Two Medals & I VLOGGED!

Over the weekend I ran the 19th annual Rudolph Run 5k in Allen, Texas. And good news, I set a PR*** and got 2nd in my age group!

Two Medals ~ Twice as nice!

You’ll notice in the picture that I got two medals. That’s cause last year’s race was cancelled due to an ice storm. So they gave us those medals too! So I guess techincally, I will go down in history as the 2nd place finisher in both races!

Now, I’ve never run this race before, but I sometimes go for training runs there, so I was familiar with the area.

The course.

The course goes past some historic landmarks. We were even at the spot of the first ever train robbery in Texas. Kinda cool! And while not really hilly, it did have a couple long steady inclines. The last one being the last half mile of the race. But I pushed through.

Final results:

21:29, 2nd in Age Group, 33rd Overall (out of 948)

***Buuuuuuut, my GPS watch said I actually ran 3.19 miles and that I finished my 5k in 20:58. I have a feeling that is pretty accurate because at the previous week’s North Texas Turkey Trot 5k I ran 20:04 on a short course (2.95 miles), and would’ve finished right around 21  or 21:15. (click on the link for that race recap). Either way, it was fun and a 21:29 is still a PR anyway!

Vlogging during the race.

Oh, and I ran this whole race with a GoPro camera. I put together a short VLOG of the event. Watch it if you have two minutes to spare! Bad puns and all!

So all in all, a successful race and a good time!!!

How bout you? Any holiday themed races? Which of my jokes in the video were the worst? Ever win two medals in one race?

-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!

Holiday Recap: Runnin & Funnin

One year ago, I went out on Christmas Eve to do some last minute shopping.  It was awful – the crowds, the traffic, etc.  This year I did the same thing.  Apparently I’m not smart enough to learn from my mistakes.

The Murrayest time of year!

But this year, it wasn’t so bad…I was much more calm this time around.  The hoards didn’t bother me.  In fact, I kind of liked all the people watching.  I even had my sense of humor intact, as you can see in this 6 second video I shot in the mall.

How was I able to cope?  I ran before hand, of course!

Following my Disney Dopey Challenge Hal Higdon training plan, I had 5 miles scheduled for Christmas Eve.  I felt pretty good on my run.  After a weekend that saw me run 38 slow miles, it felt good to do a fast five!!!  I really believe that starting the day with a run really helped me cope with the holiday shoppers.  Though it would come back to haunt me later…

My wife’s family always celebrates Christmas right when the clock strikes midnight.  It’s always a night of fun and food, but these days I’m not much of a night owl.  Since I get up so early to run most days, and since I’m always a little tired from said runs, I can’t hang like I used to.  Once again this year, I had to be woken up at midnight to join the celebration.  So I slept at a party, that’s the price runners pay, right?

The little girl was not a fan of the fat man.

On Christmas Day we had a small gift opening party with our immediate family.  Naturally, I got some running gear.   I always like to wear an Ohio University shirt at big races, as you can see…

Disney Marathon 2012

Then it was off to my parents house for a big get together of family and friends.  A highlight was a gag gift exchange.  I originally won this weird Russian box of chocolates, and my fake smile serves to contain my excitement…

If I ate that box, along with that bacon chocolate = me fat indeed!

All in all it was a pretty good holiday!  Oh, and the little girl did get into the spirit once away from Santa…

The other Santa must’ve smelled like beef and cheese.

Back to training today.  A short 4 miler plus weights.  Almost time to get Dopey!

Did you have a Murray Christmas?  Get any good gear?  Does Santa make you cry too?  Do you have any go-to race shirts?

2012 Year in Review #blog

I do a lot of stuff.  When you do a lot of stuff, sometimes you forget some of the stuff.  So here’s my look back at the stuff of 2012 that really stands out:

We kicked off the year in Orlando for the Disney Marathon.

Waving to my fans coming out of Cinderella’s Castle with my sis.

One of the coolest experiences of the trip though, was getting to go to a “secret” meeting with the rodents of the house.

Not only that, but our toddler got to run in his first race!

I’m assuming those are moisture wicking jeans.

Then, unlike most years, I had a birthday.  I was lucky enough to spend it with friends on a patio.

Around the same time I ran two Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathons.  One in New Orleans, one in Dallas.

The Ferris Bueler Wheel was closed.

Hey Mister! I like your “throw”.

Then I went to a bunch of spring/summer concerts.  DMB, Edward Sharpe, Flaming Lips, etc. etc. etc.  But Buffett is an annual must!

I also changed my mailing address to Margaritaville.

What else happened?  Oh yeah, we had a baby girl.

Who says you never get to sleep after you have a baby?

I got to act in another movie (still in post-production at the time of this posting.)

Acting like I know what I’m doing.

Speaking of making film & television magic, I was lucky enough to win several more awards for my productions…Including my 4th Emmy!

Don’t be fooled by the fancy photo, I’m actually not wearing pants.

Then three generations of Evanseses got to dust off our Cleveland Browns gear and watch them play in person at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.  It was a rare treat for us Dallasite Browns fans!

All aboard the Browns Bus!

Speaking of rooting for teams, I’m a big fan of FC Dallas, and I was fortunate enough to briefly be a part of their dance team.

Guess which one of us forgot to shave their legs.

Speaking of hanging with famous folks…I get to meet them in my line of business, and one of this year’s highlights was getting to interview The Bangles.  Cool ladies.

I taught them how to walk like an East Texan.

Afterwards I was briefly employed as the official guard of the Alamo.

Yosemite Sam would be proud of my moves. He would then be sad that they no longer serve “Pie Alamode.”

As the year wound down, the elves got to meet the big guy, St. Santa himself.

Finally, Santa granted our Xmas wish, as we were able to go to Shreveport, LA to see the mighty Ohio Bobcat Football Team win the Independence Bowl!  This is a big deal.  After watching the team struggle for decades, they are finally good!  This was their 2nd ever bowl win and their 2nd bowl win in consecutive years.

So there’s some of the stuff from 2012.  In between was a lot of other stuff – races, friends, shows, good times, adventures, etc. but these are some highlights.  Looking back it was a pretty dag nab good year.  Here’s hoping that 2013 is even better!  And here’s hoping your year was also happy and next year even happier.

Peace and love!

The Great Santa Run #blog

This weekend in North Texas is the Great Santa Run 5k.  I’m not running it this year as I need to run 12 miles for my marathon training.  And I know if I join in a 5k, my competitive side will come out of the closet and wanna race!  So I’m being smart and sticking with my steady long run.  I did run it last year however, and here’s my recap:

It was the first year for this race, and I think they did a decent job with it.  It benefits a very good cause (My Possibilities), and is a fun event.  They didn’t have chip timing, so I couldn’t find what my time was, but I’m sure it wasn’t anything too speedy.  After all, we were in Santa suits for crying out loud, and aloud.

They were trying to set the world record for largest Santa gathering.  I’m not sure if they did or not, but there were a ton of us out there.  The St. Nick costume was included in our registration.  A rather unique idea for a race, I thought.  I enhanced mine with a red cape (no photo available).  Can I just say though, that they got the suits from somewhere in China, and they were cheeeeaaap.  Now don’t go gettin’ me wrong, I wasn’t expecting anything professional, but it was actually comical how bad they were.  The sizes and styles were completely random, no matter which one you got or what it said on the label.  The suits actually started falling apart during the run.  I half expected this since you could see through them before the race even started.  Haha!  Still, it was fun though.

All in all it was a strange morning.  It was a rather ridiculous sight seeing all those Kringle’s running around, and Eric Estrada (C.H.I.P.S) even made a surprise  spectator appearance.  Apparently he was staying in the hotel near the race start and walked outside to watch us run.  Some lucky fan even got to plank on him.  Totally random.

I am now insane for having seen this.

Good luck to everyone who’s running it this year.  I hope it’s just as random!

Peace!