I Got a Fever & New Key West Half Marathon Pics/Video!

Sup mutha truckers? Hope everyone is staying warm wherever you be. I myself, have been quite out of it recently. 102 fever, yo. And let me say that a Thursday Night Fever isn’t as much fun as a Saturday Night one.

While I’ve been trying to recover, I got some good news – More Race Photos/Videos!

Last month I ran the Key West Half Marathon. It was Epic. You can read the recap HERE.

Anyway, they’ve been trickling out race photos to us as time goes by. Earlier they sent me this one…

Boom Shaka-laka!

The other day they posted a few more…

Runin Down Duval St.

The after party. Can you spot me?

The fams celebrating after the race.

And then…….The other day they posted a “drone” video they shot at the event. Now I am a TV producer, and I use one of these quadcopter cameras from time to time. They really do give a cool perspective on things.

They only posted it on Facebook, which was giving me issues about trying to post the video here. But I think I got it figured out. Please to enjoy the Key West Half Marathon from above…(see if you can spot my cameo)

That just reminds me how much fun that event was. And hopefully it will remind you that there’s warm days out there to be had!

How bout you? What should the prescription be for my fever? Do you ever find yourself in random race videos/photos? Who’s ready for spring?

-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

Back 2 Runnin, Birthday Boy, Makin TV & a Bummer, man.

Bummer, man…I’m not in South Florida anymore.

(If you did miss my recap of the Key West Half Marathon, see it HERE)

But it’s good to be home too. Especially to celebrate the boy’s 6th berfday!

We’re just a group of mouth-breathers.

With the hat and shirt, there’s no mistaking who’s day it is.

My fave kind of cake and fave baseball play – bundt.

To burn off the birthday cake, I got back into my running groove after taking a couple days off after the race. The highlights were my weekend runs with friends.

Sunrise run with Marsha.

The next day we tried to run trails, but they were too muddy. Another round of pavement pounding it is!

A bunny wabbit run with Serene. Funny cause we actually saw a coyote on our run.

Other than that, it’s been business as usual. If you don’t know, when I’m not running, I’m making TV shows. And this week I got to go to a fun little training thingy to help keep my skills razor sharp.

Movies aren’t as glamorous behind the scenes.

So there ya go. And now I go. More miles in the morning!!!

How bout you? Do you see any animals on your runs? Celebrate a birthday recently (aka join a new age group)? What kind of videos would you guess that I make?

PS – Again, if you missed it, you can see here my Key West Half Marathon Recap & my Key West Photo Purge.

-Scott

Post-Run Birthday Boot Camp & Speed Humping

It’s been another crazy few days. Let me start covering it with today’s post on Saturday morning.

First off, I got up somewhat early to run. The humidity was redonk. Like 95%. Plus it was windy and hot. I had planned on going 8-10. I made it to 7…barely.

After the run, it was time for a birthday party. That sounds fun….but it wasn’t.

It was the birthday day of one of the folks I run/workout with on occasion. So what did she want to do…Party? Brunch? Party brunch? Nah, she wanted to lead everyone in a boot camp session. Sheesh.

I know we’re supposed to be in plank, but I’m doing the more advanced version where you put your knees down for a bit.

About 10 minutes after my run, there we were dragging tires, throwing medicine balls, squatting, planking, burpeeing, pushing up…Oh, and  we did a sort of plank/push-up workout thing called ‘Sally’. I don’t know who Sally is, but I now hate her.

Can you spot me doing core work?  Afterwards they had Lululemon cookies.

I did get to thinking (during the exhausting workout) that I’m glad these are the kinds of people that I count as my friends now-a-days. People who want to kick off their birthday with a run, yoga, boot camp, etc. I like that. Sure, we may still celebrate with some margaritas later, but first we’re going to get our sweat on.

Anyway, after the sweatfest, I saw a sign…literally. I saw a road sign that NEEDED a video. So we made one. Below is that video:

How bout you?  Do your friends celebrate their birthdays with a workout?  Do you know Sally?  Have you ever seen such a literal road sign?

-Scott

My Pukey Instructional Track Video & When did become a thing?

Are you dudes on Vine?  I love that app.  You basically have 6 seconds to make a video.  It’s a fun little way to be creative.  I was making videos on there pretty regularly…until my app stopped working…for months it was down.  But now it’s back!  And so on my run yesterday I made a quick one to let people know how a track workout should go:

Haha, yeah, you should be hurting.  But the good news is that if you do it regularly, you’ll see results.  I’ve noticed an increase in speed on my other training days.  That, and doing interval workouts is the best way to burn fat.  That’s good too, right?

After my run, the boy ‘graduated’ from pre-kindergten.

Luckily that bridge was in the classroom to cover the lazy river.

When did this become a thing?  From what I hear, kids now-a-days have several graduations – Pre-K, K, etc. etc.

Yes, they had diplomas, performances, presentations, and even celebratory cake.

{Grumpy old man voice} In my day, we only had one graduation – High School.  Then another if you finished college.  Kids these days!  {Back to normal voice}  That said, it was pretty cute seeing these kids in their caps and gowns and such.  It was actually a fun event.  And I suppose it’s good to give kids a fun reward for school every so often.

“Now that you’ve graduated, it’s time to get a job. Go apply at that law office.”

Most important to him though, the graduation came with presents from family members.  Hopefully he’ll remember these incentives as he gets older. Haha!

How bout you?  How do you feel on track/speed workouts?  Ever been to a kid’s graduation?  Anyone have an internship available for a 5 year old?

-Scott

 

My Video is a Finalist!!!! Please Vote for it!

Just a quick note – I got some good news today.  A video I made Sunday afternoon is a finalist in a contest!!!  Now the voting is open to the public to decide the winner.  If you wouldn’t mind, please vote for mine – “C”

You can vote for “C” here” http://www.heb.com/page/offers-contests/earth-day-video-contest

It’s not perfect, but it was the best I could do in just a couple hours.  It stars myself, my boy and girl.  My wife helped out behind the scenes.

Thanks again for voting!  I appreciate ya!  Now off for a quick run!

-Scott

Runnin, Pro Soccer, & Cassanova

I’m always pretty worn out come Monday from my weekends.  I think we need to make Monday’s a national sleep in day.  Yes, I know we’re supposed to sleep in on the weekends, but runners (and parents) don’t seem to have that luxury.

Saturday I got up and ran 10 chilly/windy miles with one of the pups.  Why did I run ten?  I dunno, sounded good.

That evening I got called to work with the TV broadcast of the FC Dallas match vs. Portland Timbers.  If you don’t know, when I’m not exercising, I’m a TV producer guy.  This gig called for me to stand at midfield and watch soccer.

On field Selfie!

I’ve played soccer since toddler days and it’s still my favorite sport.  So this is a pretty sweet gig for me.

The next morning I was going to get up and run with group on some trails, but I didn’t get up in time for their start.  No biggie, I was able to get 4-5 miles on the trails by my lonesome.  I hadn’t been on the trails in a while, and I loved it.  It’s so awesome to run in nature.

My shoesies got a widdle durty.

I’m so glad to be re-introducing trail and track running back into my routine.  It’s so great to mix it up!  And so beneficial too.

Afterwards I went to the Lululemon yoga class, where get this, a lady had a newborn baby on her mat.  It was kind of cool to see the baby looking around as her parents did yoga over them.  That is until the baby got fussy and they had to step out.  Anyways, it was a good class and I did some poses I had never even heard of before.  Reverse tree/eagle anyone?

And of course the weekend also included some doggy/kiddy walks.  The boy even collected some flowers along the way.

He’s a little early for the prom.

How bout you?  Do you like trail running?  Are you a soccer (football) fan?  Would you accept flowers from a boy in a shark shirt?

-Scott

Hey Look, I’m in a Magazine

First off, don’t get too excited, it’s not Playdude or whatever.

You see, when I’m not running/exercising, I’m making videos.  I’m a producer/editor/writer/videographer/director/host/etc.  In fact, part of the reason I write this blog is to help keep that creative/writing part of my brain strong – just like we have to exercise our bodies to keep them fit.

I’ve been lucky that at the place I work, we’ve won a ton of awards over the years.  We’ve even won several Emmy’s from the Texas Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.  It’s a team effort, but considering they had 1 nomination and 1 win before I got here, and since then we’ve had 19 nominations and 8 wins, I’d say I brought some luck 😉

Two of my ladies.

Seriously though, I do enjoy entertaining and educating people, so I enjoy what I do.  I have had offers for jobs offering a lot more money, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to be as creative in those positions, so I turned them down.  Anyway, a local magazine put our picture in this month’s issue because we recently won two more Emmy’s a few months ago.

I was hoping for the centerfold.

You can enlarge the image by clicking on it.  If you do and then decide to print it out, you can send it to me and I will autograph it and mail it back.  Of course, I’m just kidding about that previous sentence.  Please don’t do that.  Haha!

What about you?  What do you do to be creative?  Do you incorporate your line of work into exercise somehow?  Have you ever been in Playdude Magazine?

5k Recap – Disney Dopey Challenge Day 1

Day 1 of 4 of the inaugural Dopey Challenge.  This was the 5k Family Fun Run.  It was chilly, but humid.  I was there with my mom and sis.  It was early.  The 2 am alarm clock did not allow for much sleep – especially since I kept tossing and turning afraid we’d miss the alarm.  I also couldn’t shut my mind off while struggling to figure out which outfit to wear for this race (a manly problem, I know).

Sis, mom, me. Before the race.

My goal for the first 3 races was to finish with a PW (personal worst).  I wanted to save my legs for the finale of 26.2 miles in just a few days.  To remind myself to take it easy, I had brought a few outfits to wear.  You can’t take a race too seriously if you’re wearing something silly.  I decided on an old Goofy hat that I own, along with giant Disney cartoon gloves.  And of course, I had to represent my Ohio Bobcats!

The theme of the race was Pluto, but Goofy’s a dog too…isn’t he?

I also carried a GoPro video camera to capture some of the highlights.  If you have a couple minutes, and don’t mind Blair Witch style cinematography, then you can watch the video here:

And while I wanted to get a PW, I still wanted to RUN all 4 races.  I figured part of the Challenge is to actually run, and not walk.  Save for a few photo ops.  Not that I have anything against walk/runners, but for me personally, I wanted to complete what I took to be part of the challenge – running the races.

Yes, I started and finished the race before the sun came up.

The 5k started in the Epcot parking lot, and finished there too.  Basically the course took us on a lap of the park.

The warm-up runs.

I was a tad disappointed with the lack of characters out.  They’re were a few – but the line to get a pic with Dopey was insane!!!  Luckily I got to meet up with him later on (stay tuned for that pic)!

Judging from the photos, I ran the whole race with my arms in the air…like I don’t have a care.

I was also a tad disappointed that they didn’t have all the Disney flair going on – Like lighting up the giant torches.  This was done for a later race, however.

At the finish, next to a lady with a glorious lion mane of hair!

I was lucky to start in Corral A.  From the peeps I talked to who were in the later corrals (through E), it took a long time before they got started.  In fact, I talked to some who said people were finishing the race before they even started!  Apparently the gap between corral starts were kind of lengthy.

Bird’s eye view of the finish. Hands still in the air.

In the end, I reached my goal of getting a PW by about 10 minutes – 35:26.  Considering my last two 5k’s I finished right at 21:50, I’d say this result is a good job of taking it easy!!!

All smiles at the finish photo line!

Race 1 done, 3 more to come!  3.1 miles over, 45.5 to go!  And a fun finisher’s medallion to boot!

Medal 1/6 gotten!

This race was over quick.  Like I said, it was still dark out at the finish.  And it was good to get the race jitters out of the way.  It was weird to line up for a race that I wasn’t “racing”, but like I said – I had a plan and stuck to it!

So there you go, Dopey Challenge Race 1 Recap!  Next up will be the race 2 recap – the inaugural Minnie Mouse 10k!  If you missed my recap of the Expo, you can read it HERE.

How bout you?  Ever ran a race that you didn’t “race”?  What do you think of the Disney 5k?  Holla at me!

Destination Workouts and Awards

I was in the Texas town of Seabrook for work the past couple days. It’s home to NASA and the Kemah Boardwalk. It’s right on the Gulf of Mexico. Sticking to my training sched, I got up early to run. I love running in new places. You really get to see stuff from a different perspective. This run I got to see the sea.

This was NOT a pedestrian friendly town. Not many sidewalks, busy roads, etc. But I didn’t get run over, so I got that going for me. I also ended up at the commercial seafood selling district. I love seafood, but that place smelled funky! Must be the dumpsters! But it was made up for by the beautiful sunrise views over the water. Awesome.
There were a lot of animals about too. Deer, jellyfish, non jellyfish, and lots of pelicans. In fact they had painted pelican statues all over town. Kind of their mascot I guess.

Anyway, a nice run. I also got a good little workout in in the hotel gym. After though, we had an awards dinner. I’m a TV producer when not running (as part of this conference I taught a class on pre-production). So I got all gussied up and collected our trophies. We work hard on our shows and it’s nice to be rewarded time to time.

All in all, a pretty good couple days. But the travel and excitement and exercise has left me a tad tired. Just landed back in Dallas and off to home to hopefully relax on the couch with the fam and rest up for 6 mile Saturday and 16 mile Sunday. Here we go!
Here’s my question. If you had a mascot, what would it be?