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

Long Run (Hooray!) & I Run 4

So the weather finally cooperated (no more icy roads) and I felt fairly healthy again, so it was back to runnin! I ran each day last week, including a long run with the White Rock Running Co-op. Felt good to be back out there after nearly 2 weeks off!

The route we ran. Started/Ended with hills while the lake was sandwiched in between.

Who Ray that was fun!

After the run, we got breakfast tacos…natch! And I’m glad we did because it gave me a chance to catch up with some run buds.

How can it be butt burnin if it’s only medium heat?

One of these run buds is in the I Run 4 program. If you’re not familiar with IR4, here’s what it says on their website:

“In I Run 4 Michael, Athletes of all levels and kinds – runners, walkers, yogis, triathletes, etc – are paired with children and adults with physical, mental, and developmental special-needs ranging from Down Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy to Autism Spectrum disorders, to physical deformities and disorders like lost limbs and congenital organ disorders, to lesser-known disorders like AHC.”

It’s a pretty cool program. A lot of these kids aren’t able to run, so when someone runs 4 them, they usually share with them how many miles. After special events like races, quite often they send the kids their medals/shirts.

For the past few months, I’ve been giving race medals to my bud so he can send them to the girl he’s matched up with.

Me & Clay and the chocolate bar medal he’s going to send the girl.

It’s always great to hear back that the kid was so excited to receive her new bling. I’m really glad it can bring a smile to her face!!!

Now yes, I do love my race bling too. And my own kids always love it when I bring a new medal home. So what I usually do now is explain to the race people what I’m doing and if I can have an extra medal for the girl. So far so good!

Here’s me in a homemade tank top hugging a unicorn for some reason. In the background you can see where I hang my race medals.

Not only do the kids love what comes from being in this program, but it can help the athletes too. When things get tough in a race, thinking of the kid you run 4 will help you keep going! That’s for sure!

How bout you? Have you heard of IR4? Do you know Who Ray is? Should I start a homemade tank top business?

-Scott

I Saw a Real UNICORN on my Run!

I did, I really did, but before I get to that, let’s recap the week.

This week saw some crazy up and down weather, but I took it all in stride – literally (see what I did there?).  It started on Saturday with a hot and humid 10 mile run at around 8:30 per mile pace.

It continued Sunday with a successful yoga practice.

The window don’t lie.

It went on on Tuesday with a morning 4 miler at about 7:40 per mile pace.  Followed by a weight session.

It ran on on Wed with a windy track session.  I went 4 miles with an average pace of 7:04 per mile.  The 400’s are getting faster by the week – most of them around 80 seconds!

If you keep your race timing chip on, you can pretend to race each time you run!

It carried on on Thursday with a weight session followed by a social run.  I ran 3.5 miles at a 7:15 per mile pace.

Boom SHAKA Laka.

It was great to see some old running friends there.  And of course, after the run came the social part where we got to catch up with one another and swap running stories (for some reason my non-running friends don’t want to talk about running all the time).

I was getting in my Zen Zone. (BTW, click any image to enlarge and get a better look)

But what was even cooler to see was a real. life. UNICORN!  The route we ran took us by a few fields of wildflowers.  There were three or four photoshoots going on in said fields.  And one of them was a little girl with a unicorn!  I’m sorry I didn’t have my camera to take a pic, but someone did capture a half human half zebra on the run though…

Centar….Zebtar?

But for reals, the white pony had a sparkly tail and a horn on it’s forehead.  Chances are it was a fake horn that was attached to the horse.  So I did a quick net search and found the local folks who take the unicorn pics.  If you’re interested in taking Unicorn photos, here’s their website.  In the meantime, here’s an example of their work…

This is EXACTLY what I saw (but with a different girl).

But maybe not, maybe it was real.  I’ve written before about my fascination with North Korea.  And it was reported recently that North Korea has found an actual ancient Unicorn Lair.

So who’s to say what’s real and what isn’t.  Life’s more fun when you believe anyway.

I’m a humacorn.

How was your week’s workouts?  Ever see a ‘mythical’ creature?  How long do you leave your timing chips on your shoes after a race?

-Scott

Boston Marathon – Possible?

You have to be fast as a unicorn to qualify.

At last night’s social run we had a few speedy people, including several Boston Marathon runners.  I got to talking to some of them after the run.  They were all talking how they got in the 2014 race as registration was open this past week.  But not just anyone can register, you have to run a qualifying race and time first.  I said how I’d like to run it, but would probably have to go through a charity registration as I can’t run a 3:10 marathon yet.  Yet.  That was the key word, and they jumped all over it.  My one friend told me it took her 6 marathons before she finally qualified.  My other friend, a local elite runner named Logan Sherman, told me that they would get me there.  Here’s a pic of Logan as he was featured in this month’s Competitor Magazine:

He’s fast.

This gave me some hope and inspiration, but the numbers don’t lie.  I’d have to run a 3:10 marathon to qualify.  That’s 7:15 minute miles.  I can run faster than 7:15 miles now, but during a 3.1 mile race, not a 26.2 mile race.

Anyways, I want to try at some point.  I wouldn’t mind going the charity route, but I’d have to raise a LOT of money.  Thousands of dollars.  And I’d kind of like to be able to get there on my own too.  I’d have to get really serious about improving endurance and speed.  I used to be a lot faster (in high school), but can I get back to close to that conditioning?  As one of my other elite running buddies told me on the track one day – Yes you can.

Smokin’ fools in the 400 in high school.

I still have those track shoes at home (autographed by former world record holder Butch Reynolds on the right outside heel – check it out, eagle eye).  Maybe I need to lace them back up.  Maybe I should get the same haircut too, yeah, that was probably the secret to my speed.

Anyone else have dreams of Boston?