Marathon “Train”ing, Chasing Waterfalls & Helping Chicks

Playa playa, what it is? Been another crazy week! So busy! I still have…not one…not five…but TWO race recaps I need to blog. Hopefully next week!

For now, let’s just look at some pictures of some of my Chicago Marathon training from some of this week, shan’t we?

Doggone it’s hawt in hurrah!

That’s not a real waterfall, that’s just my actual sweat dripping down the stairs.

I choo-choo-choose to have some fun in my marathon “train”ing.

To my chagrin, she wasn’t pumping water, she was churning butter.

Oh hey, look, I even have some moving pictures from the morning of those last two pics…

Here we are just over halfway through the month and I’ve already run almost 90 miles! Woot woot! So the training is so good so far.

***Bonus Alert***I have one extra pic.***End Alert***

It comes to us from the FIRST RACE I attended last weekend. I love this pic…

So much going on here.

Here’s what had happened: You see us all laughing in the background? Well that’s cuz that gal had just passed chicked that guy and we yelled at her to keep it up all the way to the finish line (about 50 yards away). Then our buddy Josh (in orange) yelled at the guy to not let her beat him. The guy paused for a second, weighed his options, then started yelling out profanities before taking off on a dead sprint! It cracked us up.

***Spoiler Alert*** He didn’t catch her.***End Alert***

More miles and hopefully more dope pictures this weekend! I’ll share on Monday (& hopefully have those other two race recaps too!).

How bout you? Climb any statues lately? Ever curse during a race? Did I miss any other caption puns?

Play on playas!

Sun Runs, I’m Sir Mix-A-Lot & A Whole Lotta Bull!

Things around here have been crazy whack funky! So bizzy I’m dizzy! But I’ve managed to keep my Chicago Marathon training on point. All it takes is a 4 am alarm…oy!

The sunrise and I like to cuddle. I’ll be honest, it burns a little.

I’ve been trying to mix up my runs by changing locations frequently. It helps to have the new scenery, of that there is no diggity, no doubt!

Sunrise, I eat you! Unless of course you can melt all those gnats off my neck…Then I only nibble you.

And when you change locales, you also change the cool things you get to see.

Did you hear about the cow that was artificially inseminated? It’s true, no bull!

Besides mixing up the locales, I’ve also mixed things up by going to various group social runs. That does wonders!

Before the run, 96 degrees…Kanye and Taylor look thrilled.

Besides helping my runs go by fast (literally), the other runners also always like to replenish our carbs and swap run stories afterward.

After the run…Kanye and Taylor had to bail. Some of us wore shades to hide our glowing cat eyes…some didn’t.

This is true at the sunrise hour as well.

This morning run was in 98% humidity with a dew point at 74. The staff literally had to mop the floor under our table when we got up to leave!

I feel very lucky to have so many runner friends and so many run groups that I can join up with on any given day. It really does help the running!!

More morning social miles – all smiles!

So there’s a quick visual update. Sawwy I’ve been so bad about blogging recently, but like I said, it’s been crazy whack funky around here! Hopefully it will get a bit more chill soon! That would be on fleek! (I hope I’m using all the slang correctly)

How bout you? Mixing up your runs at all? Got any other bovine jokes? Been on fleek lately?

-Scott

Runner Mansion Pool Party

I got to meet up again with the White Rock Running Co-op for an early morning long run. We had a pretty big turnout for this one.

The owner of the house told us the hill under us is their pet cemetery. Errr, what?!?

Some of us got there an hour early to get in some extra miles. I settled in with a crew going at a decent pace for me. We went 5 humid and hilly miles. Then we met up with the main group to run some more. By then the sun was coming up and it was hot as crap!

Oh, did I mention this run was hosted at a mansion?!?!

Excuse me…do you have any money that I can like, have?

I added another 4 miles with the main group (That’s 9 total miles for all you arithmetic-challenged folks). I wanted to go further, but the heat and humidity really zapped my energy.  I had to stop a few times to pour cold water on my head.

Ala my blogging buddy Salt’s pic, you can see the humidity here too.

Luckily the mansion had a huuuge pool for us to cool off in.

I also got to catch up my pal Virginia (who’s also a runner). That’s another bonus of showing up to group runs ~you never know who you’ll run in to! (see what I did there?)

Yes Virginia, there is a Running Clause.

I also got to make some new friends.  Ya know, cause we all need more people to talk about running with!

I almost wore those same pants.

Anyway, like you could maybe see in my Vine above, the pool area also had a full outdoor kitchen with food, a keg, margarita machine, sand volleyball court, outdoor shower, etc. I felt like I was in an episode of Cribs!

I call this one “Boy flying a paper plane that is really made out of metal”.

And being that I’m so sophisticated, I was able to blend in…because I’m fancy as crap!

I’ve always been Klassy with a capital ‘K’.

All in all it was a good time!  Now I just need some more money so I can get a mansion and host runs.  Maybe I’ll start a Kistarter campaign.

How bout you? Hang out at mansions much? How do you handle running in the heat?  Who wants to pledge funds to my Kickstarter?

-Scott

PS – It’s been crazy busy around here and so I’ve been “offline” the past few days. Can’t wait to catch up with everyone!

17 Mile Run and Emmy Anticipation

Since I had to rearrange my run Disney Dopey Challenge training schedule this week, that meant I had to do my long run of 17 miles early on Friday before work.  That meant I had to get up pretty darn early.  But I kind of liked it.  I got to run in a part of town I normally don’t because of high auto traffic.  But there were not many cars on the road when my feets hit the streets.  It was kind of cool running through a normally bustling area, that’s temporarily all quiet and asleep.

It was also somewhat cool this morning – temps in the 40’s!  I went out with shorts, tech tee, gloves, and a headband to keep my earsies warm.  I must say, the temps must’ve helped, because the 17 miles seemed relatively easy.  I could’ve kept going.  And my pace increased as I went.  Nice!

I also ran through a part of town I had never run through before – “Why not?” I figured, I’ve got to keep adding miles anyway.  It took me through a new (to me) park that I got to explore the trails of.

It also took me down a dirt road which ended at an old graveyard.  The cemetery was built in 1850 and lots of the grave markers were from around that time.  It’s in an isolated field still to this day.  Now keep in mind that the suburb of Dallas that I now live was nothing more than farm land and a whore house (seriously) until about 15 years ago when the population and construction exploded (they quickly kicked out the cat house).  Back in the 1850’s there couldn’t have been more than a handful of settlers in this area, trying to hack it on their own (and avoid Comanche raids).  I paid my respects and moved on.

All in all, a pretty glorious run!

At Disney’s Emmy display after the marathon in January.

Now I can enjoy the Emmy Gala tomorrow without worrying about trying to squeeze in a run!  Some of you have been asking, so here’s the deets:  The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has a few regional chapters in the USA.  Texas is so big, it has it’s own – The Lone Star Chapter.  So this is a regional competition.  Most of the winners are from the local PBS, ABC, NBC, CBS, Univision, Telemundo, etc. etc. etc. networks.  Every once in a while, one of us smaller guys gets a win.  I’m lucky to have several nominations, and four actual Emmy’s with my name on them.  This year, we’re nominated for five!  We could come home with anywhere from zero to five.  You never know when it’s up to judges.

Please sir, may I have another?

Anyway, here’s a couple of the ones that we have nominated this year.  In this first PSA I actually play a runner, but please don’t critique my form as I was extremely stiff from PR’ing in a Half Marathon the morning of the shoot.  You may also recognize my quirky style of writing in the voice over script…

The other video I’ll share with you is one I’m very proud of.  I used to produce training videos for firefighters and paramedics, so I’m glad to still be able to work with them from time to time.  For this video, we shot some of it in Texas and also utilized some footage I had shot in New York City at Ground Zero…

If you can’t wait until my blog recap of what went down, then follow me on the tweeter as I’m sure to be updating it during the Gala.

They’ll also be streaming the event live on their website, which I have linked earlier in this post.

In the meantime, please send good vibes our way!!!

What about you?  What special plans do you have this weekend?  When was the last time you got dressed up?  Any long runs? 

Flying Pirate 1/2 Marathon Review 2013

First off, let me just say that this may be my favorite race to date.  Had an incredible time. We lucked out on weather.  We had good times before and after the race, so that may be swaying my opinion.  My sis and I flew into Raleigh, NC.  One of my besties lives there.  We stayed with her and she showed us her town.  It was my 2nd time to visit her there and I love this area of our country more and more each time I visit.  Such great food places (not many chains).  Such great brewpubs.  Such great great people.  Such great sights.

With my sis and sis from another miss.

After I got into town, I had a few hours to kill so I went for a run.  I ran in Umstead Park.  Even though it’s called a park, it’s really a forest.  It’s huge.  Lots of trails, lakes, wildlife, and really tall trees.  It was gorgeous.  And I’m told it’s where Gwen Paltrow would go on runs when she was there shooting Iron Man.  She has good taste.  My trail run was wonderful.

Tall trees. Sounds like the name of a crappy band.

But enough about Raleigh, this post is about the race.  It takes place around Kitty Hawk, NC in the Outer Banks.  The OBX is basically a string of islands off the coast.  It’s where Blackbeard the pirate hung out.  It’s where the Wright Bros did their first flight.  Hence the name of the race – Flying Pirate.  It was my first time to OBX, and it was beautiful.  So any race there has a great chance of being scenic…and it was!

A flying pirate would be a very dangerous thing indeed!

This race was so much more low key and laid back than the races I’m used to.  You run a Rock n Roll Marathon Series race and you’ve got lots of hoopla, and lots of people.  This race was the opposite.  People were so chill.  Getting ready for the race to start, it felt more like a casual Sunday jog than a competitive race.  People were genuinely happy and chill.  Oh, and there were lots of people dressed like pirates.  Of course!

Right before the start. That’s not a threatening pose, I’m trying to show of my temporary pirate tats on my hands.

The course starts through a parkish-neighborhoody area.  It then ran along the Sound.  We were literally feet away from the water.  It was beautiful.  The course then went through some neighborhoods.  Most of the places on the island were empty since it was the off-season (no tourists), but the locals who were there came out to cheer for us.  And they also cheered in a laid back manner.  They weren’t jumping up and down with crazy signs and noisemakers.  They were supporting us with golf claps and words of encouragement.

Even the other runners were supportive.  I don’t see that at most races in Dallas.  As I passed other racers, they would actually take the energy to to yell out encouragement to me.  I really appreciated that.  It was really cool.  More on this in a minute…

Anyway, the course then took us past the Wright Brothers monument where they had their first flight.  Yet another scenic spot.  But then things got hairy.  The course left the paved surfaces for the dirt pathways of a nature preserve.  The last 3-4 miles were a hilly trail run.  I wasn’t expecting that.  I hadn’t trained for that.  My pace to that point had been pretty good and a PR looked like it was a given.  It wasn’t.  Running trail hills after 10 miles took it’s toll on me.  I had to walk up a few of the steeper ones.

Tacklin the trails…kind of.

There was a guy in an Elvis costume doing the same thing.  We’d have to walk up some of the hills, but then were able to run down.  In fact, as I was walking up a hill, a small group of racers passed me, but on the downhill I caught up to them and they all cheered for me.  They encouraged me to finish with them…and we did!  That was really cool.  Runners helping runners. In fact, after the race, some guy came up to my sis and thanked her for running with him for most of the race.  He said she helped him finish and didn’t even know it.

No PR this time, but it was a great time!

After the race, there was a big pirate party.  Pirate ship, live band, free food, free beer, people laying in the sun.  Again, laid back.  Totally chill atmosphere.  That’s island life for you.

I think a pirate threw up on me.

Our medals turned Christie into an owl.

At the finish. Pirate kites everywhere – why not?

Meet us under the pirate pennant.

More pirates. Arrrrgh you glad?

And yes, the medals were cool.  I didn’t take a pic of the backs of them, but they’re cool too with cool inscriptions.  “Happy Happy Happy” they say.

Yes, that’s a pirate ship behind me.

In the end, I finished right at 1:48:32.  That’s 8:17 per mile.  Good enough for 24th in age group and 177 overall.  My time wasn’t what I was shooting for, but given the tough final three miles, I’ll take it.  I will say that the only cool thing about the hills is that as we left the nature preserve, we entered a field.  It was 100 yards downhill to the finish.  You’d never seen so many people running so fast at the end of a half.  Like I said, 100 yards down hill!  And it was a serious slope.

Anywhoodle, after the race, we got some seafood, then some bottles of wine, then chilled on the beach all day.  It was really chill.  Dolphins and surfers out in the ocean.  Great way to recover after a race.

Here’s your typical beach photo of legs and feet.

The next day we actually went and checked out the Wright Bros monument.  It’s probably the highest point of the island had great views at the top.  I was surprised to learn how even Amelia Earhart had visited it.  They also have a set of statues where they recreated the famous photo of the first flight.  We had fun posing with the statues.

Say “Whiskey!”

Gotcha!

We also checked out the sand dunes.  One of only a handful in the country.  I had been to the ones in Michigan before, but that was many moons ago.  These were pretty cool though.  They teach hang gliding there, and supposedly Blackbeard buried some treasure there too.

This will by my solo album cover whenever I become a recording artist.

So I once again must declare this my favorite race to date.  It was like none other I’ve done before – smaller and laid back.  Supportive runners and spectators.  Really cool swag (I forgot to mention they also gave us a pint glass too).  Extremely scenic course.  Very flat course until the very hilly last few miles…But even those last tough miles were very beautiful too.  Cool medal.  Fun afterparty.  Great part of our country.  Historical location.  Excellent food around.  Nice people.  Beaches.  I could go on and on.  I have nothing but positive thoughts on this race.  Can’t wait to do it again!!!

Peace!  -Scott