15k PR, Hipster Tacos/Coffee & Ready for Chi-Town!

OK kids, it’s almost time. Just a few days to Chicago Marathon Day!!! I’m feeling pretty good heading into it, mainly because we had a good pre race test over the weekend. The DRC Loop 15k. 

Some scenes from the day. Yes, I had bib issues.

This was a 9.3 mile loop of White Rock Lake. I wanted to work on my pacing in preparation for Chicago. And boy did I. I ended up setting a PR!

1:09:26, 7:28 per mile, 6th AG*, 47th OA

*Yes, there were some fast people at that race.

What had happened.

This gave me confidence. It’s nice to run a PR a week before your marathon.Not only that, but my training partner also PR’d and even placed in her age group. It shows the work we’ve been doing is paying off. Hopefully that means good things for Chicago. <fingers crossed>

Anywhoodle, afterwards we got breakfast at a hipster taco/coffee shop. Now I don’t drink coffee, but my friend does, so here’s what it looked like from her end:

Some people heart coffee, I heart tacos.

So there it is, kids. Short and sweet. Sorry if you wanted more detail, but I’m too focused on where I’m going this weekend to keep living in the past. 😉

How bout you? Ever have hipster tacos/coffee? Ever race the week before your goal race? Any bib attaching advice?

-Scott

Run – Keepin it 200, Dogz Treatz & Super Moon Powers! #OwnChicago

Guys, you guys! Hey guys! I’m back. In so many ways, I’m back! Back to the poor lonely blog. Back to my ole runnin self. Back to life. Back to reality. Wait…I think I devolved into a Soul II Soul song there for a second…but I digest.

September is over and it saw my legs carry me 200 miles!!!

192 + 8 = 200 according to math and Nike+

Chicago Marathon training is winding down and I’m feeling grrrrrreat! Oh wait, I just got why Tony the Tiger says that – so he can grrrrrrrrowl when he does. Huh, learn something new every day…but I divest.

Run. Sun. Shoes. Tacos. Life.

The Texas weather is still hawt as all get out during the sun times, but during the before sun times it is actually kewl out! The humidity/dew point finally broke. It’s no longer oppressively oppressing. I can actually sweat and have it evaporate and cool my bod. Ya know, like it’s sposed to.

It’s made a world of difference in my runs. I have pep in my step. I’ve missed pep this summer.

Mess with the bull statue, get the statue horns.

I had zero confidence two weeks ago. Now I have all the confidence. So many hot sweaty muggy slow long runs finally replaced with cooler damp fun faster jaunts. I didn’t even mind the final track workout.

The numbers and letters say it all..or write it all, as it were.

I’m feelin fine. My month long cough seems to be gone. My aches don’t ache so much. And I’m really enjoying the sunrise runs.

Which way do you want to go?

Keep it coming, Skyler.

You don’t see many people out and about as early as I’m running, but you occasionally see some regulars in the parks. I’ve gotten to know a few folks, and a few dog folks too.

We’ve been good. We can haz treatz?

And this has to be a good sign – I even got to run under the #SuperBloodMoon too!

#nofilter #ILoveMyMoon

Anywhoodle guys, I got some more blog catching up to do. But I’ll save it for next time, which should be maybe…tomorrow? Yay, I’m back!

How bout you? Feelin any Fall? Who’s ready to #OwnChicago??? Does the blood moon give any special powers?

-Scott

PS – To all my blogger friends – I’m sorry I’m so behind. I’m reading your comments and I’m going to reply to all of them! I can’t wait to catch up with your happenings too!!! Working on it, kids!

Running with Armadillos, Skunks, Kanyes & Humans!

I’m tired, kids. Gone over 500 miles the past 2-3 months getting ready for the Chicago Marathon. That’s a lot of 3:45-4:00 am wake-up alarms. The good news is that I still haven’t missed a single day of training. That, and I’m relatively healthy – no major injuries to report – just the odd aches and pains and colds and coughs. It’s going relatively well, all things considered, if you must know, I do declare, but I digress.

The past weekend saw our 2nd 20 miler of the training plan.

If we make funny faces, it’ll mask our pain.

Oh, that reminds me, in August we ran 198 miles. And yeah, I thought about running an extra two, but then I unthought about it.

So close to the double century mark. Oh well, there’s always next month.

Back to last week – One nice surprise was the rare “short” weekday run – Only a 5k! That’s a far cry from the 12 miles scheduled we ran just 7 days richard prior. Decided to do it on the track – just a few pre-sun 800’s amongst friends.

It was dark. Used a flash. My shoes glowed.

And is it just me, or are there a lot more varmints out and about lately? On the track there was a skunk…a SKUNK…On.The.Track!!!!

There’s also been some coyotes, frogs, bobcats, bunnies, more skunks, and some giant roly poly bugs…

Happy to report we outran the armadillo. And we were sure to cautiously approach the dangerous HS XC team behind us – oh how I hate them with their short shorts, long hair & zero body fat.

Not sure what’s going on…are they all foraging for winter sustenance? Do I need to do the same? Should I start hoarding choco-sprinkle donuts like these smelly critters…?

Strange beasts indeed.

Oh, and did I mention the snakes? Indiana Jones would hate it up in hurrah..

It’s totes real.

That pic above is courtesy of Thursday Night Social Run – as always, things got crazy with TNSR. There is so much going on below, that I don’t even…

Da Fu?

There’s been some more runs and funs, but I’ll get to that, like later, or whatever, no big whoop. For now, I gotta go lay down, put my feet up and watch the new episode of Drunk History. Hasta luego, playas!

How bout you? Been seeing any critters on your runs? Armadillos – cute or dangerous? If you were an animal, what would you be?

-Scott

The Mustard Run, Running From School & Getting High On Weekdays!

Yo dudes. Yo. Luckily I have recovered from the Ginormous Cat Attack and Chicago Marathon training marches runs on. We just had our highest mileage week yet – 55 big ones! To get that high, you gotta do some decent sized weekday drugs runs. Here was Tuesday, for example…

Not even the morning lightning could stop me!

All those early morning miles leaves you constantly tired and hungry and sore, but I know it will pay off in October.

Needed flowers to mask my smell.

I’m still happy to report that I haven’t missed a single mile yet. Sticking to the training plan like honey.

Warning, I may have lost my mind somewhere along the way.

It’s been fun though, I’ve gotten to see a lot of interesting stuff along the roads. Amazing where your own two feet can take you.

With my friend, Annette.

The only thing different the past week has been that school is back in sesh. The once quiet pre-morning streets are a little bit more active. That, and I can hear the cries of children (along with wine corks popping from the ‘rents).

I feel your pain, kid.

And can you believe the little stinker is in 1st grade? Makes you feel old, doesn’t it? Well, probably not if you haven’t known him since birth. But if you have, then yeah…

He likes it when we draw on each-other’s pictures (no, he’s not on Snapchat, – just me).

Anywhoodle. The long run for the week was our first 20 miler of the training plan. I’m not going to describe it here because it.did.not.go.well. None of it was fun. Let’s just say that at one point I resorted to eating mustard packets from a 7-Eleven. Yeah, that bad.

Ugh, just thinking about this run hurts me.

But heay, we all have a bad run/day. That just means that the next one will be better, right? It’s got to!

And besides, you can always have a few craft brews with dad afterward to help feel better.

Yes, it’s a selfie stick. No, it’s not mine. The pub actually provides them for your own safety.

And besides, gotta carb load back up cause we have our 2nd 20 miler this Saturday! Here’s to redemption!

How bout you? How’s back to school going? Ever eaten mustard on a run? Is it wrong that I’m so proud of my “Annette” joke?

-Scott

Mars Attacks Runners & A Dewey 18 Miler!

What it is, playa playa? Hmmm – Just occurred to me that if you speak Spanish, you think I just called you “beach beach”. OK, that works too…What’s up, beaches?

It was a crazy week of running. I mean, at TNSR we were attacked by friggin Martians!!!

I don’t know what it is about all this marathon training, but I’ve been eating like I got a hole in my stomach.

It was crazy, we were just minding our own runness when they attacked!

Joke’s on the aliens, they attacked the wrong headquarters! Either way, Jewely & Andre The Human were not impressed.

We tried to make nice and offer a truce through a group photo, but things deteriorated quickly!

After this, I’m now thinking like I got a hole in my head.

Before I move on, I gotta give credit for all the above photos to @sojomy He brings some creativity and funny stuff to the table! Thanks Josh!

I move on…

Chicago Marathon training is going well. Haven’t missed a workout yet. Body feels mostly good. Tired, but mostly healthy. The weather doe, that’s another story doe. Like at Saturdays long run with WRRC…

Started at a taco joint, ran to a lake, somehow ended up in Downtown Dallas. Craziness.

Our dew point has been hovering around 70. I was reading somewhere that when it’s that high, you should just skip your workout. Welp, that’s not an option. So sweaty times it is!

It’s pretty oppressive, but with the help of friends who stick with me when I struggle, I do get through it. Thanks friends!!!!!!!!!!!!! We will have our reward at breakfast.

Salt, ice, citrus, tequila – all things that help runners recover.

And it goes on and on. More (s)miles and (s)miles. Looks like 192 miles is the plan for August…and at least 148 selfies to go with them. Stay tuned, beaches!

How bout you? Gotta plan for when Mars attacks? Do you have a secret to fighting the dew point? Wanna meet for a breakfast ‘rita? 

-Scott

Too Hot To Handle 5k – The Race I Didn’t Race!

So I ran in a rare Sunday 5k. Things got weird. It ended with this…

Scotty the Riveting.

But let’s start at the beginning. I carpooled with my unusual suspects. One of which had scored us a prime parking locale. We just had a short walk, lovely as it was.

Sneaky photog phriend got this shot.

We made it to the race, and it was pretty big – several thousand runners for both the 5k & 15k. As luck would have it, we ran into a TON of friends! As unluck would have it, I didn’t have a bib or timing chip – D’oh!!!

Pre race with some running amigos…and also our secret service agent.

No worries, I was pretty sore from running 12 hot miles the day before. And if you can guess from the name of the race (Too Hot To Handle), it.was.hot. So hot and nasty…and not in a good way…

Hydrating before the race. Two Girls, One Cup.

So I decided to run with my tiny friend, as she said she was not “racing” it either. She turned out to be a liar.

We’re all like, “Running is funzo!” Dude in blue is all like, “Say whaaa?”

Mile one – we had to weave around like a gazillion others, and so it was nice and slow and easy just like we planned.

Mile two – my tiny friend picked it up. I said, “Ok then, is this what we’re doing?” and caught up to her.

Mile three – she picked it up even moar. I said, “What happened to the Easy-E plan?”

But since she did that, I decided to make sure she kept picking up the pace, as I knew she’d have a chance at an age group award. I told her to come with me, and we kicked it in the last half mile or so.

Shaving a minute off each mile is a good pace plan, yes?

There’s a new thing now where 5k’s are starting to give out finisher’s medals. Okie dokie den, fine bys me.

My smile is so bright.

And you see those shades there ^^^ ? One of the vendors was giving them out. Also bandanas too. Which eventually lead to the picture at the top of this post. Cute, huh?

A motley crew…Or is it guns and roses?

Oh, and if you were still wondering, my tiny friend did place…As did several other friends!! Wooot!

When I heard their prize was a plastic tumbler, I had hoped it would be a gymnast with a boob job.

Next time I’ll remember that you need a bib/timing chip to race. But all good in the neighborhood – it was fun anyway! I like fun, anyway.

How bout you? Any hot summer races? Ever race just for fun (and not to race)? Aren’t I kewt in that first picture? 

-Scott

Running Santa, Hipster Tacos & Purple Time!

Chicago Marathon training is in full swingers beasty mode. Been a good week of running. Let’s go backwards, shall we?

Sunday – I had a race, but I’ll save that recap for the next post. So let’s go to Saturday. This was the long run of the week.12 sweaty sweaty miles.

Texas roads don’t look normally like that – It’s a weird route because it was around a lake.

The plan for this run was to do a 9 mile loop of the lake, followed by a 5k race to make an evenish 12. Well part I of the plan went ok, part II did not. I had failed to pre-register for the race, and by the time I got there they had run out of bibs. So no dice, Detroit!

So mad that I had to partially strangle my running booze.

No worries – Went ahead and ran the final 3 miles along the race course so I could cheer for friends. And yay! Some of them won age group awards!

Tory y Juash. A tale of two pairs of shorts.

Serene got her medal, but her real reward is that I let her run with me sometimes.

Afterwards we met up with a bunch of other runner friends to get wasted on tacos! Woot woooot!

It’s ok to wear blue shades there, it’s a hipster taco joint. Fo realz – everyone in there is either in short running shorts or purple skinny jeans.

Moving on…or uh, further backwards….The weekday runs were also on point. The highlight being the Thursday Night Social Run.

Click image to enlarge and see all the totally not photoshopped action going on here. Really – Some of my friends just have weird proportions and don’t cast shadows.

This run took us past yet another group of longhorn statues. Not sure why we need so many of them here, but whatevs.

We were looking at something udderly amazing. Honest, I wouldn’t steer you wrong! Thank you, I’ll be here all week!

It was also like runner Christmas in July at my house cause a gift magically appeared this week…My ALZ Stars tech tank!

Thanks, Running Santa!

As you may know, I’m running Chi-town this fall on behalf of an Alzheimer’s charity. I’m so proud to represent the purple! If you would like to donate to the cause, you can find info HERE. And to those who have already donated, I know it’s slow going, but I promise to get your thank you prizes soon!!! #BoomShakaLaka!

On to more run-fun!

How bout yous guys? Do you believe in Running Santa? Ever have a hipster taco? Isn’t it unbullieveable how many longhorn statues are ’round here?

PS. Come back in a day or so for rest of the weekend’s recap!!!

Bloomin’ 4-Mile Race Recap – I Almost Puked, But Then Ate Tater Tacos

The Bloomin’ 4-Mile was a tough race. Mainly because it was so so hot. Hot and humid. Sun a-blazin! I really struggled (as did we all), but was able to push through for a new PR*!

*This was my first 4 mile race, so automatic PR anyway.

The race was at White Rock Lake in Dallas. I always love running there. I had a couple friends also going down from the burbs, so we carpooled together.

Hamming it up for the race photographer in a field of wildflowers.

This was part of the Dallas Running Club’s race series. It’s a pretty sweet deal – $30 for a year membership to the club and you get to run 8 races for free!!!

Before the race with my run buds…and a photobombing tree.

The course was a 2 mile out and back. I run around this lake often, so I knew what was coming – a nice little hill for us to climb once on the way out, and once on the way back. The second one especially hurt.

The red (slow) part near the turn around was the hill.

It was really hot, you guys. I really wanted to stop and take a puke walk break, but I pushed on. Thankfully I did, cause it meant I was done sooner. I was pleasantly surprised at my results, considering how I felt during the race.

Never so happy to see a finish line.

Official Results:

29:01, 7:15 per mile, 5th in Age Group, 41/440 Overall

And while I missed out on a medal, some of my friends managed to place. Big ups to them!!!

Someone in this pic got a medal, someone else missed getting one by 4 seconds. That’s gotta hurt.

Another advantage of running around WRL are the nearby craft taco joints. They are a must after a run! Run, eat tacos, watch friends play on their phones, repeat.

So all in all, a painful, but successful day!

How bout you? Ever run a 4 mile race? Any hot races lately? Ever had mashed taters in your tacos?

-Scott

Running Around Floods, The Devil’s Food & Attacked by Snapping Turtle!!!

No matter where you live, you’ve probably seen on the news all the crazy weather we’ve been getting in Texas. Torrential downpours, flooding, tornadoes, etc. It’s been a wild spring. But we did have one day this week where Mr. Sun peeked in on us.

The strange ball of light so confused me on my run.

Other than that it’s been a whet whone. Luckily we were able to race over the Memorial Day Weekend. And then it did storm the rest of the weekend. However my run bud and I were able to get in a nice relaxing 9 miler around White Rock Lake. I’ve never seen the water that high. Check out this shot from the normally dry spillway…

Usually all you see is concrete. It sounded like Viagra Falls!

One of the side effects of the high waters around town is that the critters are getting very cornfuzed. I’ve seen so many poor little ducks, gooses, turtles, froggies & snakes on the roads and trails.

And, funny story, was driving back from yoga and saw a big turtle in the middle of the road – some of us stopped our cars to help it. We quickly found out that it was a cranky SNAPPING turtle. It took some doing, but we finally got it back to the grass.

PS. I have now watched several YouTube videos on the safe way to pick up a snapping turtle. Note – It’s not easy because besides the biting mouth, they also have claws…and they can JUMP!

From the internet. This is what he looked like.

Anyway, after the 9 miler, we needed breakfast tacos, natch.

The devil made me do it.

So there it is…still getting my runs in, just having to dodge raindrops, high waters & critters.

How bout you? Staying dry out there? Ever had a run in with a snapping turtle? Having a good week???

-Scott

Chicago Marathon Pre-Training, Lake-Mansions-Taco, & Me Pretty One Day

In case you missed my earlier post, I’m runnning the Chicago Marathon, and I’m super pumped <squeal>!

The race is in early/mid October. So I still gots time before I really need to start training. In the meantime, I’m just trying to have fun running and keep in shape. The other day I met up with WRRC for a nice casual 10 miler.

Taking a quick water break at White Rock Lake (no, I didn’t drink lake water…this time).

Always good running with this group. They’ve made me faster over the past year. And we have some fun along the way.

Nuther water stop by the Swiss Ave old money mansions.

Another good thing about this group is that they’re always up for breakfast tacos after our runs!

The only bummer that about the Chi Marathon is that since it’s in the fall, that means I’ll have to do my training in the Texas summer. I’ve always run winter marathons, so this is a first. I’ve never envied my friends who are on a 20 miler in August. Blergh.

But for now the weather isn’t too hot. It’s still spring. And it’s bluebonnet season! This happens once a year for like two weeks. And when I saw some on a trail run, I had to take the photo op.

So pretty. And the flowers are nice as well.

Up next I need to decide on a training plan to follow. I have a friend who may make one for me, or maybe Higdon, or my other friend recommends Jack Daniels – tho I don’t like him as much as Jose Cuervo. Gotta figure this out.

In the mean time, I’m going to keep on running and lifting and yoaging.

My foot is ready for practice.

Oh, and fundraising too! I did mention that I’m running this race through charity, right? In fact, I’m already halfway to my goal!!!

Let’s make those grey people green people!

If you missed the short video of me explaining why you should donate – and what special perk I’ll make for you, watch it HERE.

If you prefer to go straight to the donating page, well good on ya. JUST CLICK THIS LINK.

Thanks in advance!

How bout you? Recommend a training plan? Who still goes for longish runs when not really training? What did you think of my super high tech video?

-Scott

PS. Good luck to everyone running Boston on Monday! I’ll be stalking rooting!