Northwest Running and Triathlon Race Calendar - Thanksgiving Races

The biggest single racing day of the year, absolutely bar none.

Count them up - 38 races on Thanksgiving Day! Thirty-eight!

It's never been so easy to pre-burn that turkey and pie.

Let's race!

-Green Text for Trail Runs
-Red Text for Marathons and Half Marathons
-Blue Text for Triathlons and Duathlons
-Orange Text for everything else, the normal 5k, 10k, etc

RACES FOR WEEK OF NOVEMBER 19th TO NOVEMBER 25th

November 22nd / Thanksgiving Dirt Feast Trail Run 7m and 4m / Mercer Island, WA

November 22nd / Wattle Waddle Marathon and Half Marathon / Seattle, WA

November 24th / Ghost of Seattle Marathon 50k, Marathon and Half Marathon / Seattle, WA

November 25th / Seattle Marathon and Half Marathon / Seattle, WA

November 22nd / Bonners Ferry Turkey Trot 10k and 5k / Bonners Ferry, ID

November 22nd / ORRC Turkey Trot 8k / Portland, OR

November 22nd / Upper Valley Turkey Trot 5k / Rexburg, ID

November 22nd / Club 24 Turkey Trot 10k and 5k / Echo, OR

November 22nd / Mini-Cassia Turkey Trot 5k / Paul, ID

November 22nd / Burn the Bird 10k and 5k / Great Falls, MT

November 22nd / Huffing for Stuffing Thanksgiving Run 10k and 5k / Bozeman, MT

November 22nd / Red Cross Turkey Trot 5k / Kennewick, WA

November 22nd / Turkey Day Boise 5k / Boise, ID

November 22nd / Seattle Turkey Trot 5k / Seattle, WA

November 22nd / Run Wild Missoula's Turkey Day 8k / Missoula, MT

November 22nd / Portneuf Valley Turkey Trot 5k / Pocatello, ID

November 22nd / Bainbridge Island Turkey Trot 5k / Bainbridge Island, WA

November 22nd / CSI Turkey Trot 5k / Twin Falls, ID

November 22nd / Issaquah Turkey Trot 5k / Issaquah, WA

November 22nd / Turkey Trot Clark County 10k and 5k / Vancouver, WA

November 22nd / Keizer's Turkey Dash 5k / Keizer, OR

November 22nd / Gig Harbor Turkey Trot 10k and 5k / Gig Harbor, WA

November 22nd / Turkey Trot 5k / Stevenson, WA

November 22nd / The Oly Trot 4m / Olympia, WA

November 22nd / Oregon Mid Valley Road Race 5.2m and 3.75m / Albany, OR

November 22nd / Southern Oregon Turkey Trot 8m / Medford, OR

November 22nd / Run for the Hungry 5k / Washougal, WA

November 22nd / Norpoint Turkey Trot 5k / Tacoma, WA

November 22nd / Oregon Turkeython 10k and 5k / Beaverton, OR

November 22nd / Turkey on the Run 12k and 5k / Wenatchee, WA

November 22nd / Bend Turkey Trot 10k and 5k / Bend, OR

November 22nd / West Linn Turkey Trot 4m / West Linn, OR

November 22nd / Turkey Stuffer 5k / Springfield, OR

November 22nd / BGCCO Turkey Trot in Bend 10k and 5k / Bend, OR

November 22nd / OAC Turkey Trot 10k and 5k / Corvallis, OR

November 22nd / Turkey Trot Eugene 4m / Eugene, OR

November 22nd / Hood River Turkey Trot 12k and 5k / Hood River, OR

November 22nd / Salem Runucopia 15k, 10k and 5k / Salem, OR

November 22nd / Run Turkey Run! 5k / Billings, MT

November 22nd / Give and Gobble 10k and 5k / Sherwood, OR

November 24th / Seattle Marathon 5k / Seattle, WA

November 25th / Hot Buttered Run 12k and 5k / Vancouver, WA

Northwest Running and Triathlon Race Calendar - Thanksgiving Races

Definitely a short list this week, as it's only four days before the true Turkey Day and the unbelievable number of races that will come with Thanksgiving.

Still, there are a good number of T-Day races to choose from here - plus another Jingle Bell Run in November! - so get on it.

Let's Race!

-Green Text for Trail Runs
-Red Text for Marathons and Half Marathons
-Blue Text for Triathlons and Duathlons
-Orange Text for everything else, the normal 5k, 10k, etc

RACES FOR WEEK OF NOVEMBER 12th TO NOVEMBER 18th

November 17th / Team Red Lizard Stumptown XC 8k and 6k / Corbett, OR

November 17th / Grand Ridge Trail Run 50k, Marathon, Half Marathon and 5m / Issaquah, WA

November 18th / EWEB Run to Stay Warm Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Eugene, OR

November 17th / Mustache Dache 5k / Seattle, WA

November 17th / A Very Poplar Run 10k and 5k / Boardman, OR

November 17th / Redmond Poultry Predictor 4m / Redmond, WA

November 17th / Tri-Cities Jingle Bell Run 5k / Richland, WA

November 17th / GRBC Turkey Trot 5k / Bellingham, WA

November 17th / Seaport Striders Turkey Trot 4m / Clarkston, WA

November 17th / Turkey Trot 5k / Port Townsend, WA

November 17th / Turkey Trot Relay 8m / Boise, ID

November 18th / Turkey Trot 5k / Lakewood, WA

November 18th / Turkey Trot 5k / Kirkland, WA

November 18th / Green Lake Gobble 5k / Seattle, WA

Less than a week to Nanowrimo!

Yes, we are officially less than a week away from the start of Nanowrimo. Interested in writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November? Well, head over here and get signed up.

I've got lots of ideas running through my head...check out my novel here.

Should be fun.

Let's write!

Best Running Song for October - Cold War Kids - Hospital Beds

This song is just amazing. The vocals, the piano, the guitar, the intensity.

Amazing.

Maybe even more amazing live.





They even played it live for KINK FM in Portland.



Hell, this song is so amazing, even Florence + the Machine want to play it.



Get this one on your iPod fast. You won't regret it.

Rock that Run!

Past Best Running Songs: September: Bloc Party / "Octopus" August: Matt and Kim / "Let's Go" July: Gemini / "Blue" June: Joe Jackson / "Got the Time" May: Tiesto vs. Diplo / "C'mon!" April: Grouplove / "Tongue Tied" March: Foxy Shazam / "I Like It" February: Foster the People / "Don't Stop" January: Hot Hot Heat / "Bandages" December: Camp Lo / "Luchini aka This Is It" November: Wolfmother / "Joker and the Thief" October: Phoenix / "1901" September: Matt and Kim / "Daylight" August: Collie Buddz / "Holiday" July: Pretenders / "Tattooed Love Boys" June: The Wombats / "Moving to New York" May: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros / "40 Day Dream" April: Foxy Shazam / "Unstoppable" March: Pharrell / "Fun Fun Fun" February: Puff Daddy / "Come With Me" January: We Are Scientists / "The Great Escape" December: Cee Lo Green / "F**k You" November: Tokyo Police Club / "Breakneck Speed" October: Two Door Cinema Club / "Something Good Can Work" September: Stone Temple Pilots / "Cinnamon" August: Louis XIV / "Guilt by Association" July: Devo / "Fresh" June: Saliva / "Your Disease" May: Metric / "Gold Guns Girls" April: OK Go / "This Too Shall Pass" March: The Hours / "Ali In The Jungle" February: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs / "El Matador" January: White Rabbits / "Percussion Gun" December: Deftones / "Knife Prty" November: The Kooks / "Always Where I Need To Be" October: At the Drive In / "One Armed Scissor" September: Silversun Pickups / "Lazy Eye" August: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros / "Johnny Appleseed" July: Deathray / "I Wanna Lose Control (Uh Oh)" June: Raconteurs / "Salute Your Solution" May: Tea Party / "Save Me" April: Bloc Party / "Like Eating Glass" Ever: The English Beat / "I Confess"

Evaluating Running Goals After An Injury

Yes, the "dreaded" injury. In my case, this ankle right here:

If you recall, I rolled my ankle pretty good during the Condor 25k Trail Run. After I rolled the ankle, I believe I made a few mistakes. First, I ran the rest of the race after I hurt my ankle - about 13 miles on a bad ankle. Dumb, but I can be stubborn like that, I admit. I've never had an actual DNF in a race. I didn't want to start then. Then I took six days off - a good decision. Then I thought I could go ahead and run because it didn't feel really bad. Mistake number two. I definitely didn't do the healing any favors with that run. Now I'm on a seven-day stretch without running. It's feeling a bit better, although not great. Maybe 75-80%.

So the goals...

First, I'm signed up for the Runaway Pumpkin Half this Saturday, the 27th. Way back, when I signed up for the race, I figured it would be a nice little test as I move toward the CIM in December. About six weeks away from my goal marathon, so I could run the Half fast and try to PR, with plenty of time after to recover.

Now, I'm not even sure if I'm going to run the Pumpkin Half at all. If I do, the PR is out the window.

And of course, now I'm on my third week of basically no running. In the middle of my training program for my Boston Qualifier, the CIM. Sigh...I knew qualifying for Boston would be tough, I just didn't realize I'd have so many false starts.

So I'm having a tough time with my mental outlook right now. I'm trying very hard to take the long overview:

-Get the foot healthy enough to run on again,
-If possible, use the Runaway Pumpkin Half as an easy training run,
-Get back into the training schedule, but ease off a bit. Boston is not an option at this point, and I need to regain my running fitness more than my top-end speed, after being out for so long.
-Try to PR at the California International Marathon. A new goal, sort of, but still something to drive toward and focus on. And frankly, since I had such a horrible race at my last full, a new PR is still very much possible.

And since it's important to quit focusing on the negative ("damn foot, why won't you get better faster?"), and instead focus on the future ("so what spring marathon should I schedule?"), I went out and purchased the new Hanson's Marathon Method book. What's more inspiring than a new training plan to follow?!?

So, let's review:

-Wait! Don't rush it. Let the injury heal and get back into the training as soon as possible.
-Reset the goals. Make them concrete, objective, and most importantly, still difficult yet achievable.
-Find some inspiration to get you excited all over again. A new book, a new pair of shoes, sign up for a race that's six months away. Anything to solidly plant that new goal and improve the mental and emotional outlook.

And don't think about the foot. Quit thinking about the foot.

Five Years...Ten Posts: Fifth Anniversary of the R's!

Yeah, I know that's too many candles...nevertheless...

It's been five years today.

Let's take a look back at the very first post, from October 20, 2007.



I DON'T FEEL FORTIFIED...

Remember back in the day? Back when you had never even heard of a Power Bar or a Clif Bar, or Lord help us, Gu? Ah, but what about the Tiger's Milk Bar? That's right, "America's Original Nutrition Bar". It says so right there on the wrapper. Remember when you bought one of those things for the first time? You took a bite of that slightly peanut buttery-slightly nasty thing and you could just feel the energy bursting through your veins? I mean, I thought "a couple more of these babies and I'll be kicking some and taking some just like Jan-Michael Vincent on "Airwolf"!

And now, twenty, well maybe thirty, years later, I eat a Clif Bar (chocolate mint) almost once a day, and I get nothin'. In fact, I don't even expect anything. Forty vitamins and minerals, all natural, organic, no trans fat...whatever, it's no Tiger's Milk Bar.

And I've got the guns to prove it.



...and I've got to print the comments:

Jenlo said...
Nice Guns!

October 21, 2007 3:13 PM
Steve Robinson said...
Great googly moogly! I haven't seen pythons like that since my trip to Africa. (OK, I've never been to Africa, and they look a little more like the garter snakes in my back yard, but I stand by my original comment of (and I quote) GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY!)

October 31, 2007 8:59 AM

Ah, I miss you, Steve.

Five Years...Ten Posts: Part 9

We're almost to the top spot as we count down the top ten posts on our way the the fifth anniversary of The Two R's.

And today, we're going to revisit - for the 2nd time! - an old post I wrote for the now-defunct WoolleyScott.com site. Why? Because it makes me laugh, that's why.

Enjoy.

LET A MAN HANDLE THIS...REPRISE

After many complaints...well, actually no one complained, but I think about it a lot so...I've decided to add a little more writing to The Two R's! After all, it's supposed to be about Running and Writing, except about 90% of the posts are about running. So, starting with this post, and every once in a while in the future, I will toss in a "very special, watch with your whole family, serious-Blossom type episode" best of writing piece from the old Woolley Scott dot Com site.

Let's start with a little something I called "Let a Man Handle This", originally posted on November 11, 2006.

LET A MAN HANDLE THIS

Yes, that would be me...the man. Just wanted to make that clear.

So after about the 14th time that Payton shoved his hand down his pants today, Jen finally felt she had to speak up.

“What are you doing?” Jen asked.

“Nothing,” Payton replied. Wisely, in my opinion.

“Why do you keep putting your hand down your pants?” Jen asked.

“My underwear are too loose.”

“What?”

“My underwear are too loose. I have to fix my pee-pee.”

“What?” Jen asked again.

Listening in the kitchen, I could have stepped in at this point and advised Jen to cut her losses, but that really isn’t my preferred method of parenting...or husbanding, as the case may be. Sink or swim, I say. Live and let live, I say. This is what you get for turning my underwear pink in the wash and forcing me to speed-dress at the club to limit my embarrasment, I say.

“I have to adjust my pee-pee,” Payton repeated patiently. “My underwear are too loose and it just goes where ever it wants.”

“I hope not,” Jen said.

Me too, I thought.

“It does,” Payton said. “Dad understands. He’s done it before.”

Oh, boy.

“Scott!” Jen yelled. “Could you please tell Payton to keep his hand out of his pants, please?”

The double-please is not a good sign.

I ducked my head into the living room. “It’s a guy thing. Don’t worry about it. Pee-pees sometimes have to be adjusted. Don’t you ever watch professional baseball?”

Payton nodded sagely. “See?” He said to his mother.

I ducked back into the kitchen before Jen’s crook-eye could get me.

It’s no wonder there are so few of us SAHD’s...most mothers would rather have all fathers at work six or seven days out of the week. At least.

Northwest Running and Triathlon Race Calendar - Thanksgiving Runs

Well, this is quite a mixture. We've got a couple Veterans Day Runs, a couple of early Thansgiving / Turkey Runs, and a, gulp, Jingle Bell Run! On November 11th!

OK.

We've also got a Run with Color in Corvallis. Hmmmm... I think there's a reason most of these "color" runs are in the summer. If it's raining on the 11th, that is going to be one huge mess.

Let's Race!

-Green Text for Trail Runs
-Red Text for Marathons and Half Marathons
-Blue Text for Triathlons and Duathlons
-Orange Text for everything else, the normal 5k, 10k, etc

RACES FOR WEEK OF NOVEMBER 5th TO NOVEMBER 11th

November 10th / Veterans Day Cross Country Invitational 5k and 3k / Hillsboro, OR

November 10th / Team Red Lizard Stumptown XC 8k and 6k / Portland, OR

November 10th / Ron Herzog 50k / Granite Falls, WA

November 10th / Kevin's Cup Trail 8k / West Linn, OR

November 11th / Carkeek Park Trail Runs 10k and 5k / Seattle, WA

November 11th / Bellingham Trail Marathon and 2.6m / Bellingham, WA

November 11th / Autumn Trails Eugene 16m, 10m, 6m and 3.5m / Eugene, OR

November 10th / Scappoose Rotary Half Marathon, 10k and 5k / Scappoose, OR

November 10th / Splash and Dash Indoor Triathlon Sprint / Sandy, OR

November 10th / Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis / Missoula, MT (a Jingle Bell Run...on November 10th!)

November 10th / Cheadle Challenge Adventure Run 3.5m / Lebanon, OR

November 10th / Eola Hills Wine Cellars No Hills Harvest Run 10k and 5k / Rickreall, OR

November 10th / Winter Pineapple Classic 5k / North Bend, WA

November 10th / Soap Lake Veteran's Day Run 5m and 5k / Soap Lake, WA

November 10th / Veterans Day/Marine Corps Birthday Run 5k / Bend, OR

November 10th / Tater Trot 10k and 5k / Blackfoot, ID

November 10th / Pioneer Road Run 9m and 5k / Phoenix, OR

November 10th / Columbia River Classic 10m / Richland, WA

November 10th / Snoqualmie Ridge Turkey Trot 5k / Snoqualmie, WA

November 10th / Run with the Duck 5k / Eugene, OR

November 10th / Fowl Fun Run 10k and 5k / Mount Vernon, WA

November 11th / Campbell Run 10k and 5k / Pilot Rock, OR

November 11th / Run with Color 5k / Corvallis, OR

November 11th / Cause + Event 10k and 5k / Portland, OR

Photo from By Heart Photography.

Five Years...Ten Posts: Part 8

We're inching closer to the fifth anniversary of The Two R's...and also getting very close to the start of Nanowrimo! Yes, we're only 13 days away from the month of November. I hope you have some thoughts in mind for your novel - I know I do.

Hey, let's relive that special year where I actually finished my 50,000 word novel for Nanowrimo: on November 28th, 2010.

WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!

Yes, my friends, that's 50,000 words in one month - making me, FINALLY, a winner at Nanowrimo!

And it's a good thing, because I have to immediately, and without delay, start working on my Christmas Story in 25 Parts, titled: 25 Doors. Head over there every day this December and enjoy an original Christmas story with original art from none other than Jennifer Lommers.

Enjoy!

Five Years...Ten Posts: Part 7

Getting toward the end of ten of my favorite posts of the last five years, as The Two R's celebrates its Fifth Anniversary! And this one was a favorite.

It took a full year, over $800 and a whole lot of running to put this one post together. On December 23, 2011, I celebrated running the 2011 EPIC, or in other words, I ran every single race in Corvallis for an entire year. Check it out.

EPIC 2011 REVIEW

All good things must come to an end...and so it has come to pass that the EPIC 2011, Every Pursuit In Corvallis, has hit the finish line.

And even with the last race of the year canceled, EPIC 2011 consisted of a full 27 races (although I only ran 26 of them because of this one right here). So that's an average of a race every other week for a year. Of course, we know they were not actually lined up that nicely.

Let's check out the numbers:

Races Entered: 28
Races Canceled: 1
Races Skipped because of late start: 1
Races Run: 26

5k: 14
8k: 1
10k: 4
12k: 1
15k: 1
Half Marathon: 2
50k: 1
Triathlon: 2

Trail Runs Out of the 26 total: 4
Runs All By Myself Out of the 26 total: 1

A lot of shirts come along with 26 races. A lottttt of shirts. As you can see below. I've already tossed a couple and gave a away a couple, but I'm still wearing most of them. Let's take a closer look.

Best Cotton T-Shirt: Midsummer Nights Run (Basic Black and cool design)
Best Tech T-Shirt: Good Sam Challenge (Basic Red, cool design and nice fit, which definitely doesn't always happen with tech shirts - tech shirt sizing and fit is all over the board)
Worst T-Shirt: OSU Pet Day 5k (Sorry, but that lime green is horrid - my son wears it though)

Cost of Entry Fees for the Year: Over $800, and let's leave it at that

Busiest Month: October with SIX races
Next Busiest Month: April with five races
Slowest Month: January and August, the only months with no races scheduled (although December had a race scheduled, it was canceled, so I didn't actually run a race in December either)

Favorite Course: Habitat Run Half Marathon (a fantastic trail run, with a fun course: A+)
Least Favorite Course: Midsummer Night's Run 10k (up, down, up, down, up, down: brutal)

Race Numbers: One yellow, one blue, a whole bunch of white, one rubber bracelet, one with no ID of any kind, one with the timing chip attached to the back of the number, and almost every one of them sponsored by Five Star Sports.

Races Run, at least partly, on OSU Campus: 10

All Time PR's Set: 2
Masters PR's Set: 4 (although two were distances I'd never run before - sure PR's!)

Races planned for the first six months of 2012: 2

So there you go. It was a good time, no doubt. But we're moving on. I'm ready for my next challenge. And as you can see by the races I have planned, 2012 will be a whole new year and a whole new challenge. Don't worry, we'll discuss it soon.

Coming up soon: the Year in Review!