Whether to Weather the Weather and Run

Talk about a tail tale of two runs.  This past weekend, I was going to go for a 10 mile run.  It was harsh.  This morning I was going for a 4 mile run.  It was radical.

I know there are a ton of factors that go into a good/bad run.  But I’m giving the edge in these ones to the weather.

The other day it was windy, humid and near 90 degrees.  This morning it was windy, humid and 54 degrees! Thank you cold chilly front!

The other day I got my ten miles in, but it was sweaty and laborious.  This morning I got my four miles in and it was less sweaty and glorious.  I only wish it wasn’t a school day so that I could have kept running!

I know there’s nothing you can do about the weather – you gotta run anyways.  And they don’t often cancel races for the conditions (unless it’s extreme).

In fact, at the 2012 Disney Marathon, they had a warm hot front come through and so they had to put up these signs everywhere…

Awww, but runDisney, I wanted to PR!

The heat and humidity of that race caused me to finish about 45 minutes slower than I wanted to.  I was bummed.  I felt like I had done all that training for not knot naught.

Despite my finger I didn’t actually finish in first place.  Yes, I was a bit sweaty.

I was so bummed that while drowning in a post race celebratory beer (oxymoron?), I tweeted to Actor, Runner, Hobbit – Sean Astin asking for advice.  To my surprise, he tweeted back.

Puts it in perspective.

I realized he was right.  I got to run a marathon.  I got to do it outside.  It’s a good thing.  So now I always try to remember that when ever the conditions don’t cooperate – it’s still a good thing what I’m doing.  Just hope that the next time it will be better.

And for now I’m going to hope this little freaky fall-in-spring weather we got today will stick around…at least long enough for my run tomorrow.

How bout you?  How do you handle changing weather conditions (weird fact, I tend to get random bloody noses when the seasons change – attractive, huh?)?  Any celeb twitter interactions recently? 

-Scott

ps. looking back, this post may have been partially inspired by Salt.  She’s freaking out about her upcoming race.  She’s got nothing to fear tho!

Dopey Challenge Training Done & A Look Back!

I can’t believe the training is finally finished!  I basically started back in the late spring.  Then in the dead of summer the real training began.  I followed the Hal Higdon plan as closely as I could.  Except for a couple weeks when my knee was achy and so I had to swim instead of run.  And a few days when we were under a coat of ice and I had to run on the treadmill instead of outdoors.  I hope that means I’m ready!

Hundreds and hundreds of miles done!  I added up the entire past year and I ran somewhere between 1050 – 1100.  Pretty good!

But as I prepare to get Dopey, I realized I never did a race recap of last year’s Disney Marathon.  Oops, my bad.  To be honest, I didn’t have too much drive to write it because I didn’t have a great performance.

Me and my sis running this past year’s Disney Marathon. 4 miles and and doing OK.

While the race experience was wonderful, the weather was not.  It was so fargin hot and humid, that it was a real struggle to keep moving.  In fact, I didn’t even look at the race photos until last night…

Somewhere near mile 18, not doing OK.  Check the Sweat! I was drenched!

I’ve bought my share of Disney race photos before, but I didn’t have any good ones this time around.  Although this one gave me a chuckle…

I don’t know who that guy is, but it looks like we planned to wear green university shirts. His was a little generic.  haha!

I eventually did finish, but my time was waaay off my goal.  I was pretty bummed, and was mad at the weather, and even tweeted about it.  But then a cool thing happened.  Sean Astin – famous actor dude, lover of running, and sometimes Hobbit responded to my tweet.

Puts it in perspective.

Yes, it was hot, but we still had a great time.  Can’t do anything about it, so just enjoy the experience.

Medals dang near big as yo head!

Anyway, I hope to get better actual race photos this  year, in fact I already scouted out the photographers’ locations Here, Here & Here.  Hahaha!

Next up is travel and Expo!  So close!  If you’re running at Disney this week, best of luck!  If you see me, please say, “Hi.”  You can recognize me because I look like the guy in the photos above.^^^^^^^^^^

To everyone else, what do you do to get a good race photo?  How would you handle running in that heat?  Tell me something good!

Running with Celebs

So I’m still working on organizing all my pics and vids from the Disney Marathon, so I haven’t blogged about it yet.  But looking at some other reviews of the race made me realize that we were in the presence of some celebs.  I’m not talking running celebs and elites, cause I’ve run races with plenty of them (Frank Shorter, Jeff Galloway, Bart Yasso, etc), but actual Hollywood types.  I live in the Dallas area, and don’t get to run with as many as if I lived in NYC or LALA Land, but I’ve raced with a few….and have beat them all!!!  Haha.

First was the Rock n Roll Dallas Half Marathon a few years ago.  Troy Aikman was also in it.  My sis and I beat him by 15 seconds or so.  Yup, we’re faster than a world class athlete, lol.  Then my sister followed that race up by beating him again by a few seconds a few weeks later in another half at Cowboys Stadium.  Here’s a photo of them next to each other after finishing:

Based on running times alone, I’m athletic enough to quarterback the Cowboys.

But Disney had pulled out all the stops and starts for the 20th anniversary of their marathon, and some running celebs wanted to be part of it.  A bunch were running the half, but Sean Astin and Drew Carey were signed up for the Goofy Challenge (Half on Saturday, Full on Sunday).  Unfortunately Sean had to pull out due to a gig.  And Drew had to pull out due to an injury.  Though being the cool guy he is, he still showed up to cheer on the runners and party with them afterwards.  Here’s a pic from when I met him a few years ago (before losing weight and taking up running).

No, my plastic novelty glasses aren’t prescription.

As for Sean, he showed his support through twitter.  He even responded to one of my tweets when I told him the hot conditions wreaked havoc with my per mile pace.  He helped put it back into perspective:

Getting Twitter celeb support, I’m officially a twit.

It’s a shame he wasn’t able to run, but we runners appreciate his support.  I was a little bummed because I have met the real Rudy and was hoping to get a pic with the fake Rudy.

He really was five foot nuthin, and a hundred and nuthin.

Also of note, Joey Fatone ran the Goofy Challenge.  Now he’s not a runner – this was his first half and full, but he did it!  He ran in place of his injured wife and followed the Jeff Galloway walk/run method.  So needless to say, we beat him in the full – another feather in our caps…haha!  (Now if only I had use for these feathers)

It’s the guy from that boy band – I think it’s named – My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Anywaddle, I’m always glad to see celebs out there promoting running and being healthy.  I really appreciate their support of the sport, and it’s great to see how they like to run just as much as some of us!

That’s all for now because I have to go and pick up all those names I just dropped.

Peace!

 

Run for a Cause #run3rd

So, it’s been a couple weeks since my last bloggy blog, but like I warned in that one – I was out of town, away from computers.  I was in Orlando to run the 20th Disney Marathon.  My head is still swimming from all that happened and I’m still working to consolidate the photos/videos, so I’ll blog about it in the coming days.  In the mean time, I’ll fill you in in an unofficial race I was part of right before I left on the trip.

My buddy Coach Oscar runs for a cause.  His father committed suicide a while back.  Since then, he has set up some fundraisers to fight depression.  One is a race in the Palo Duro Canyon: http://www.palodurohotdog.com/  I hope to be able to run in it this summer.  Another is a non profit he’s organizing called Live Every Day, it’s aimed to serve Depression Awareness and Suicide Prevention.  It’s not up and running yet, but if you want to donate to this cause in the mean time, here’s some instruction:  http://bswarms.com/swarm158

Anywhoodle, to help raise funds to launch the non profit, he decided to run 30 miles.  Here’s the redonk map:

I told you it’s redonk.

To get this done, he needed help.  He’s not a big time runner.  He runs 5k’s mostly.  So a bunch of us helped him along the way.  We did this by running portions of the trail with him, by providing sustenance, and general support.

Here’s a group of his athletic supporters.

I was able to join in the last 4 miles.  He was hurting, but got it done.  Here’s a video of the finish:

That’s it.  One dude with a cause, workin to make it work.  I was glad to be a part of it and hope to be more involved in the future.  But it’s good to keep in mind that no matter what race you run, official or not, it most likely has a cause behind it.  Some deserving charity is hopefully benefiting from your participation.  When you prepare for your next race, take a few moments to learn about the beneficiary, and take some time to think of them during the event.

If you’re not aware, actor and runner Sean Astin has a twitter hashtag and web page about running for others.  It’s this: http://run3rd.blogspot.com/ Basically, you run first for yourself, second for your family, and third for a cause of your choosing.  Try to figure out who you #run3rd for, it will make the miles more meaningful.  After all, it ain’t all about you son!

Haha, keep it up kiddos. Peace!