Tag: dad

Personal

Happy Father’s Day to DadLOLZ

Hollie

Normally on Sundays I write my training recap.  However today is Father’s Day.  If you have read my blog for more than a day you know I’m extremely close with both my parents and family. 

So Happy Father’s Day to my dad for always supporting me through the best and worst of times.  Thank you supporting me through many life changes, break ups with boys, good changes, bad changes, coming to my swim meets, to my soccer games (LOLZ) and my road races. 

I will now tell you my most embarrassing moment.  (Thank you dad!)

Back in high school I went on multiple college visits.   Dad went to visit all of them with me.  When we went to East Carolina University (which was my second overall pick behind my first SUNY Potsdam).  We were looking at various tables, clubs and majors in a college fair type setting.  We walked around the maze of different booths.  Some gave out free pens, stationary with their logo’s etc.  We happened by the Dance major booth.  I saw a nice pen and I picked it up.  The faculty in charge of the major began to strike up a conversation.  (I was already regretting taking the pen).

The woman asked if I was interested in the dance major.  Before I could even answer dad jumped in (sarcastic as always) and said YES, my daughter loves to dance!  The lady was already thrilled and the conversation went like this:

Lady: Do you have an interest in the dance major?

Dad: YES, my daughter loves to dance!

Lady: Oh really?  What genres are you most interested in?  Ballet, tap, jazz?

Me: Um-

Dad: My daughter likes to go to the teen nights at the nightclub at Peabodies (Down on VA Beach) and do that things do these days and booty shake!

Me: Um, well uh thank you, come on dad.

Dad: What?  I thought you might have a genuine interest.  You took the pen!

It’s funny because intro to Modern Dance was one of my favorite General Education requirements at Potsdam.  I loved that class.

I wish I could tell you that was the only time something of that nature happened but he also did it at a Coast Guard booth on career day and was convinced I was going to go to the Coast Guard.

Thank you for making fun of me when I photograph coffee.
Thank you for making fun of me when I photograph coffee.
Thank you for reading trashy magazines with me.
Thank you for reading trashy magazines with me.
Thank you for being 1 of 50 men to run the Zooma Annapolis half with me.
Thank you for being 1 of 50 men to run the Zooma Annapolis half with me.

 

Thank you for always being there and bringing the LOLZ. 

 

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Personal

Happy Birthday Dad!

Hollie

Today is my dad’s birthday.  Since dad normally assumes the responsibility of taking photos “for the blog” today the blog is dedicated to him.  Incase you didn’t know, I inherited all slightly off humor from him.

Happy Birthday Dad.

Happy Birthday Mr. H.

Happy Birthday H-time.

My dad: I don't want that specialty crap. I just want plain vanilla ice cream...I'll be bold and go with a cone. Put this on the blog, I never eat ice cream...I'm treating myself.
My dad: I don’t want that specialty crap. I just want plain vanilla ice cream…I’ll be bold and go with a cone. Put this on the blog, I never eat ice cream…I’m treating myself.
Dad: This is what you look like when you take photos of your coffee.
Dad: This is what you look like when you take photos of your coffee.
Dad: Proof we finished that god awful hot hilly race.
Dad: Proof we finished that god awful hot hilly race.
Dad: Is this what you young kids do, read about Brittney spears and shave your heads?
Dad: Is this what you young kids do, read about why Kate is single?  Why do you even care?
Running

Mud Run Recap

Hollie

Last weekend dad and I did a mud run together. Though this is a timed race I will never have a goal  time for these races?  Both dad and I consider this more of an outing then anything.  Like a hike in the park?  I will never race an obstacle style race because I know that would be when I would get injured and the last thing I want is to be injured due to something like this. That being said I love to run with my dad and we enjoy doing this as a team.

When I woke up Saturday, I was extremely tired and not in the mood to do anything.  If we hadn’t been doing this race I probably would have used Saturday as a cross training day. After drinking coffee (I don’t normally drink coffee before road races) dad and I were off for our adventures complete in our matching singlets and black bottoms.

After doing a 2 mile warmup and shooting the breeze with a few locals, we waiting for our carol to start (8:20).  It was hot, humid and more smelly then usual and with that we took off. The first half mile was on pavement and up a hill (and probably my favorite part of the race).  They had changed the course up from other years so we were excited for a different route.

Because we were out to have a good time and have an unusual workout (and change of pace from road running) we decided it would be humorous to narrate the different parts of the race as they related on a global scale.  At the half mile point we got onto grass and dad I decided we were in the grasslands.  We also thought this was more cross country then anything.

mudrun

After crawling through some mud, we got to the beach and Australian coast.  Since it was high tide, there was no packed sand so we were running on soft sand for about a mile.  I’ve found soft sand tightens my plantar fascia so made sure to roll them out with a golf ball afterwords.  After climbing man-made dunes and running the mile on the beach we turned and headed into the jungle.

Down the dune

Which was essentially the woods.  It was nice because the trees, roots and overhead limbs were marked similar to cross country races to provide with the least amount of injuries. Dad and I were pretty strong in the jungle and we passed a few teams (not that it really mattered).

After the jungle we were led back to near the starting line for some water, obstacles and back into the grasslands.  We were around mile 3 at this point and headed back through some mud.  Mile 3-4 was the hardest I would say because we were muddy, shoes were soaked and were running through more mud so it was soft.  I think this could be where I was a little grumpy and whiney…is it over yet?

mudrun5

The final .67 (it was supposed to be an 8k..but I guess dad and I took all the shortcuts…) was back through sand and mud and up a giant hill followed by face planting into the mud.  Two volunteers  monitoring including a lifeguard with a tube, yelled “you aren’t muddy enough”.  I wanted to yell back well that is because this is more of a sand dash in the Sahara then mud run.  It was true for as much sand there was…there wasn’t a lot of mud.  But that is okay so when I got into the mud, I splashed some more on so dad and I looked more badass then we were (then of course they caught it on film).

Let's put some mud on my shirt
Let’s put some mud on my shirt

And then we sprinted the last 200 meters to end and I have never been so happy to finish a race in my life.   All in all I had a great time and it was more adventurous then anything.  Races like these make me appreciate the beauty of running and that not every race needs to be a PR, fast or remotely close to your fastest speed.  It’s just as much about the process then the outcome.

mudrun2

Questions for you:

Have you ever done a mud run? Or Color Me Rad, ect?

Have you ever rolled around in the mud or taken a mud bath?

What…that isn’t your favorite thing to do too?

Swimming

Jack King 1m Open Water Race Recap

Hollie

Oh where to begin this race recap.  Every year, dad signs him and I up for the Jack King 1 Mile Swim.  When I used to be a competitive swimmer it wasn’t a big deal.  It was just 7 days of swimming a week versus 6.  But that is long removed from life and I’m lucky to haul ass to the pool once per week.  I could sit here and talk about my swimming back in my swimming prime but it isn’t relevant.  I don’t swim much anymore, therefore don’t compare myself to that speed, time or mentality.  I literally did this just to finish (which is good considering I got a nice 7 out 7 in my age group!

That being said, when dad informed me he had signed us both up (as well as my brother Matt) I couldn’t say no (meaning I was skipping so many great road races this weekend!).  This is the race I’ve done the longest (6 years!), it’s always so well put together and the people there are great.  So with that, we headed on our way to the race.  I have always enjoyed that swim races start at 10am, I would say it’s nice to sleep in but I don’t really do that so I just mused around.

Upon getting to the race at 9am, we realized…why the hell are we here so early.   Not once have I ever warmed up for an open water swim.  Not once have I ever gotten into the ocean or bay before a swim.  I normally just run in, prey to the high heavens my body doesn’t go into cardiac arrest from the temperature change and that’s that.

Before the Swim
Before the Swim

This time was no different, though it’s in water start.  I started right next to Matt…we were chatting and all of a sudden we heard people yelling to go.  That’s us.

I don’t really know what to tell you about open water swimming.  So here were all my thoughts:

I was taking in the sights of the pitch black water below me.   Yummy.

I took in the feeling of being pummeled several times by several waves.  YAY storm systems.

I took in a sight of some crazy tourists who came too far out.  YAY you need more clothes on.

I never saw the half way point (King Neptune Statue). Boo, it felt like the race was a marathon.

It got extremely chilly during the second half of the swim.  I have gotten hypothermia from an open water race in the middle of the summer before.  It took me nearly an hour to recover from that race and was in a med tent so I’ve always been weary about that.  Because of the storm, there was cloud cover and wind (hence the waves that VA isn’t supposed to have) but it also made it cold.

I was never so happy to see the buoy.  YAY orange buoy.

I did the left hand turn, followed the probably 90 year old man in front of me and ran into the beach.  I didn’t trip on the beach and they handed me my glorious 124th place (out of around 150).

And that is how it happened.

I did try as I don’t bag anything.  This was just a nice awakening of where my swimming fitness is..surprise…it’s not there.

After the swim
After the swim

As I told everyone, getting last in my age group is not a big deal .  I am simply bringing up the caboose to the pain train which still got to the station.

Oh joy maybe I’ll get into the pool for the next open water swim…when my arms aren’t sore.

Questions for you:

Does finishing last bother you?

What is your perfect race start time?

Between 8-9am for me

Resturants

Empire Brewery Review

Hollie

There are a few highest honors you can have in my life.  A very important one is meeting my dad.  My dad isn’t scary and I don’t really know why people are intimidated by him…actually he downright hilarious.  Last week I begged Laura to come to dinner with dad and I before she left for the Cleveland marathon and I left for VA(which she rocked…you can read about it here).

empire

We settled on a local brewery at Empire Brewery in downtown Syracuse.   They make their own beer and have some of the best and most delicious bar type of food I’ve had to date.  I’ve been a few times (as to why I can write a proper LOLZ review) and gotten the Mediterranean platter, Greek salad, and feta chicken flatbread…

The reason I like their salads so much as not only do they add a ton of actual food (I’m actually not still hungry after eating), there is pita bread (+1 point), I can get multiple dressings (+1 point) and they have couscous in the salad (+1)…Not sure what these points are adding up too but it’s my review and I’ll add points if I want.

empiregrilledchickensalad

The main thing is the food filled me up and tasted good.  Oh and wasn’t expensive.  It might be a little bit of a lie if Laura and I hadn’t discussed the dessert options beforehand so that is that.  We settled upon each getting a sundae made from a special dark beer (similar to Guinness).  Wow, this was probably one of my favorite ice creams to date.  It wasn’t like beer overload but it had all the deliciousness of beer and ice cream combined.

laurandidessert

Then dad shocked the world and ordered a cheesecake.  He said it was “for the blog” (my dad routinely makes fun of my blog) and he also has absolutely not sweet tooth at all.  The cheesecake was also deliscous but left to my own I would (and next time I come to Syracuse) will get the sundae again.

dad

So would I recommend Empire Brewery?  Well if you can’t tell I don’t generally write restaurant reviews unless they have become a LOLZ staple.  (Though I know eventually I’ll write a snarky one) I think I should make a review tab at this point.  Oh and yes I would recommend Empire and I would say go big and get the sundae too.

Questions for you: Favorite flavor of ice cream?  Favorite beer?