Hello Spring & Egg Hunt Run!

Don’t call me French Scott…call me Freedom Scott. Our dog is so Che in this pic.

So yes, when I turned over the April page of our #flalendar (Flula + Calendar), I saw an opportunity to do a recreation. Such is life.

Ha, anyway, it’s Sprung around North Texas. That means high winds & humidity, warmer weather, and occasional storms. It’s made my runs interesting. I’m not quite acclimatized yet. Buuut it does feel good to get some sun on our skin.

The girl catchin some rays.

The boy runnin with bulls. His idea. He’s learned well.

Even though it was windy and warm, I still had fun running with friends this week at an unofficial egg hunt run.

First we ran.

Here we come, into the Gale force winds!

And then we looked for eggs.

My pals getting a tricky one.

I don’t know who had more fun – kids or non-kids (the eggs had prizes inside for all ages)

After the fun was dun, it was time for more fun. We went down the street for some nibbles and bevvies (see, I’m so European).

Throwin shade…because we’re young and hip.

On the patio, doe.

And since my French Freedom look went over so well, I decided to keep it going.

I’m so intellectual that I have light coming out of my ears. Photobomb courtesy of run bud Katie.

Good times for all! I’ve got some more fun runs planned for the weekend. Onward and upward, kids!

How bout you? Springing yet? Any Easter runs planned? Any ideas for more fun photos you want to see?

-Scott

Running in Sweat, Possible Fart, & Pea

I’m ready for a weather break. This Texas summer has been pretty mild temperature wise, still hot, but we haven’t had the dozens of consecutive 100+ degree days we usually get.

That said, it’s been extremely humid. So much humid. It’s like trying to run through hot pee pea soup.

By the end of my runs, I’m SOAKED in sweat. Yesterday I threw my run shirt on the corner of the bath tub. A few minutes later I heard a leaky faucet. I went to turn it off and realized that it was my shirt dripping sweat. There was a nice stream leading to the drain. I wondered if any bugs gaught caught in the “Great Spider Sized Flood of ’14”

Today’s butt sweat – some see Mickey Mouse, some see a heart. Either way it’s gross.

For the past week or so the TV weather folks have been promising a “cold” front. It ain’t came yet. And if it ever does, there’s no telling how long it’ll last.

What HAS arrived however, is some wind. The past two days we’ve had a 20 mph constant hairdrier blowing in our faces. It made today’s track workout interesting…half the track felt like I was running in place, the other half I felt a giddy up.

I made a very hilarious and extremely sophisticated video about the situation. The middle school football team practicing in the field gave me some sideways looks.

I’m not complaining, mind you, I’m just a little frustrated. I haven’t raced in a couple months. And this weather has slowed my pace, despite feeling like I’m working harder. I’m just looking forward to some reasonable fall weather races where I can go for “speed”.

I expect all this muggy weather training to pay off when we do get a break. Till then, it’ll still be minimum 2 showers per day. Rock on, playas.

How bout you? Got Fall yet? Like looking into the clouds, do you see anything in my butt sweat? Ever run in a giant’s fart?

-Scott

Windy Track Work & N. Korea Marathon

I ran my 2nd track workout of the season yesterday.  This time I did 400’s with a 200 in between each.  It was tough, but good.  What made it extra tough was the wind.  The back straight away and a half turn, I was running directly in to the wind tunnel.

It’s that thing, when the forecast is ‘wind’.

It felt at times like I was running in place.  There’s not much I can do about it though.  This time of year, it’s pretty much windy like that every day.  And I do have a race next week that could have the same wind, so I might as well practice in it, right?

In other news, did y’all see the North Korean Marathon is open to tourists for the first time in history? You can read about it HERE.

Last one home gets sentenced to hard labor.

I’m all for destination races, but this would be crazy!  I’ve always been fascinated by places I’m not usually allowed to visit – aka, Cuba and N. Korea.  Call it a forbidden fruit sort of complex.

If you don’t know, most Americans are not allowed to visit Cuba – our two governments don’t play nice together.  And it’s usually not a good idea to visit N. Korea, because they can get kind of detainy-to-prison-campy with Americans tourists.

Still, I’d like to see these places someday, and I know how running is a great way to see new places.  Maybe they should put on something like the Disney Coast to Coast Challenge between the two countries???

I’m assuming this will be on the race shirts.

Run a race in Cuba, get a medal.  Run a race in N. Korea, get a medal.  Then get a bonus medal for completing the “Cross World Communist Dictator Race Challenge”!

How bout you?  Are you lucky enough to always have the wind at your back?  Would you run in the DPRK?  Up for the Commy Race Challenge?

PS – Don’t forget your daily vote for my video “C”!!!  Only a few days left to vote for “C”: http://www.heb.com/page/offers-contests/earth-day-video-contest

-Scott

 

 

 

 

‘Nuther Weekend, ‘Nuther Race

So a few weeks back I registered for the Dopey Challenge at Disney World.  It was a pricey entry.  I’m still waiting for sponsors to help me out – come on already,  you know you want to!  Anyway, I’ll write about that later.  In the meantime, I figured I’d have to skip other races cause I spent so much on that one entry.  But here’s the thing, I’m in a 5k tomorrow.  I got a free entry from a co-worker, so that is good.  I like free race entries.

It’s the Head for the Cure 5k in Plano, TX.   I don’t know what to expect because I’ve been a little sick the past two weeks and that took a toll on my runs.  It caused me to run slower than normal and even skip a couple runs all together.  But you know how it goes on racing day, the adrenaline can get cha!

I also don’t know what to expect from the course.  It goes through a nature preserve mainly, so it could be quite scenic.  But from what I gather on the course map, there are quite a few switchbacks.  I hope they aren’t too bad.  I also hope the weather is good.  Anyone who lives in North Texas can tell you that it’s been windier around here than in a 1939 Kansas farmer girl’s dream/nightmare.  It’d be nice to have a run where I’m not facing 20-30 mph steady gusts.  And I hear the temps are supposed to be around 60 degrees American – which would be surprising and awesoming!  N.TX don’t usually see those temps in mid May, I’ll take it.

I’ll do my best to try and place in my age group, but you knever know about that.  I’ll fill y’all in on how the race went on Monday. So stay tuned!

Either way, after the race on Saturday we’re shooting a new David Chicken music video.  If you (or your little ones) want to be in it.  Holla at me!

C-Ya!

Abby’s Run For Dandy-Walker Review

So last week I wrote a preview of this 5k race.  Now I’m writing the review.  As I said in the preview, my friend was the race director and the race benefits Dandy-Walker Syndrome.  The race is named for a little girl with the condition, coincidentally named Abby.  She was at the race, that was cool.

At the start. In a crowd.

The 5k took place in Frisco, Texas.  I’ve run quite a few races in Frisco, and I’ve spoken to quite a few of the race directors from those races.  From what I gather, the City isn’t always too cooperative with the race organizers and don’t like closing roads.  That’s the reason why so many of the races in town include multiple laps, 180 degree switchbacks, etc.  I’m assuming that’s why this race was a two lapper with one switchback.  I normally don’t like it when you have to run multiple laps because that means halfway through the race you have to pass by the finish line.  That always seems like such a tease!  But this race I hardly noticed it because at that point two people had caught me and I was trying to hold them off (I did!).  And I didn’t mind the switchback because it let me see how close the runners behind me were.

At the finish. All alone.

Why did it matter how close they were and why did I want to fight off other runners?  Because I wanted to do well in this race since I knew so many people involved with it and because I had lots of friends and families there.  I was lucky enough to finish officially 3rd overall and 1st in my age group!  Technically there was a friend of mine who beat me, but he was wearing another injured friend’s bib, so I guess his time didn’t count cause he’s not listed on the official results?  I still count it as finishing 4th for me.

Abby’s Run with Scott’s Finish places.

To be fair, it wasn’t an extremely competitive field.  This is only the second year for this race, and they’re still trying to make it grow, but talking to some of the organizers, they said they were very pleased with the turnout as it was waaaay more than they had last year.  I hope it can continue to grow!

And I was glad I ran a smart race.  I didn’t go out too fast like some others did who I later passed.  And I was able to be smart when we were running face first into the extremely windy wind!  I had done a warm up with my friend Brian, who won the race, and we previewed the course and strategized where to conserve energy and where to let it fly.  I stuck to the plan and it paid off!

Some of our group. We brought home some hardware!

I think they did a great job with the whole event.  It started with a one mile fun run.  And they had some trainers out there warming people up.  They also had a whole village set up with sponsors tents and activities for kids!  That was a cool thing that you don’t see much – a whole section devoted to keeping kids entertained.

But the coolest thing was how this race benefits a great cause.  And I was VERY proud to accept my medal for winning my age group because they were hand made by some of the children who are affected by Dandy-Walker.

I’ll treasure this one fo shizzle.

Each medal is unique and mine had a cool painting design on it.  I wish I knew who the kid was who made it so I could thank him/her.  Maybe next year!