2016-08-03 - Winner, Winner, Turkey Dinner
We have some fun brainstorming days back here in the event office, thinking of ways to make your race experience the best it can be. Our number one goal is to produce events you can trust your training to, with a safe, accurate, and timed course. We then add a hoaky theme, fun swag and perhaps beer and wine. Heck, we all need to be rewarded for our efforts!
Today we finalized plans for the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day, the 11th annual! Plans like pumpkin pies, 5 deep in 5 year age groups, medals to all entrants and Turkeys to the overall winners! The hot chocolate aid station is back and of course... Santa! Run, then eat all day. The turkey trot, perhaps the greatest tradition in running outside of the Olympic games!
Run for the turkeys,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner who is thankful to have fun stuff on the calendar, events that get us all out the door training!
PS: Speaking of thankful, at RF Events we are forever thankful to our incredible volunteers... speaking of volunteers, what are you doing this weekend? Come play in the woods with us at The Legend, Saturday, August 6th in Laingsburg, MI! Volunteers receive a sweet volunteer shirt, $30 toward a future RF Events' Event, a fun day and a million thanks!
PS: The volunteer fun doesn't end there! Ever dreamed of working at a vineyard? Now is your chance! Running Between the Vines on August 13th, 2016 in Jackson, MI at the gorgeous Sandhill Crane Vineyards is a gorgeous day with great vibes! Learn more HERE!
2016-07-28 - The elusive rave run
Some runs just suck, some runs are OK but I just had my first fast, fun and amazing feeling run in a while and can honestly say, it was worth the wait. Rave runs like these, sometimes few and far between, keep getting us out the door. Kind of like pulling the slot machine handle over and over, or casting a line just one more time, hoping for the magic to strike.
May you hit the jackpot on your next run,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner, who's faith in running is renewed and is pleasantly sore and smiling. (Few things is life leave you feeling this way J)
PS: HARD CIDER, PANCAKES, RUNNING! Do we have your attention? Head to Almar Orchards in Flushing, MI on October 2, 2016 for the Scrumpy Skedaddle 5K and 10K! Medals and mugs to all finishers, long sleeve cotton shirts to all entrants, hard cider tasting and all you can eat pancake breakfast at the afterparty!
RUNSCRUMPY.COM
PS: Come play in the woods with us on August 6, 2016! The Legend 5 Mile and Half Marathon at Sleepy Hollow State Park in Laingsburg, MI takes you through 2600 acres of hardwood forest, prairie grassland, and around several Michigan lakes. NEW for 2016, medals for ALL distances! The Legend continues,
2016-07-20 - Take hot weather runs seriously!
Most of us are mired in our lifestyles with responsibilities of family, jobs, bills, and piles of unfinished work and projects that can stop us in our tracks as we jump out of bed for the daily run. It is as if the enemy has thwarted our attack on this new day. We may awake to run plans that get sidetracked within minutes. The truth is, getting out the door is never easy, and at times, just getting started requires a super human feat. You have blown through that barrier plenty of times, the trick is to keep up the momentum and know thy enemy!
That said, the weather is never a reason to skip a run. As you know, I love extremes, especially when it comes to the weather we run in. Life in the middle of the road will get you run down! When its 10 below or over 90, a simple run becomes extreme and requires planning and thought. It also comes with a bit of danger, but you may have noticed, all the cool stuff is dangerous so no need to avoid it, just take it seriously and pack enough water.
Run for the shade,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner who will be running short shaded loops on trails, never far from a lake to jump in.
PS: Come play in the woods with us on August 6, 2016! The Legend 5 Mile and Half Marathon at Sleepy Hollow State Park in Laingsburg, MI takes you through 2600 acres of hardwood forest, prairie grassland, and around several Michigan lakes. NEW for 2016, medals for ALL distances! The Legend continues, enter if you dare!
PS: Join us in Jackson, MI on August 13th for Michigan's most beautiful half marathon! Running Between the vines is a high class run with a high class finish party! Shirts and wine tasting (with snack food pairings!) to all entrants, finisher's medals and glasses to all finishers! RUNVINES.COM
2016-07-13 - Savor the pain!
Today's run was, to say the least, difficult. From the first step to the last, including the 3 times I had to walk a bit to catch my breath, it took all I had to keep moving forward. The planned 8 miles ended at 5.8. The pace was pathetic, the effort to accomplish so little on the other hand, felt heroic, far more so than the finish of some marathons I have run. This painful struggle will no doubt be the highlight of my day. Only those who run can possibly understand why I'm wearing a smile.
Savor the pain, you worked hard to feel this bad,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner, feeling fulfilled by my morning run, and happy not to be going through this life in a couch potato haze.
PS: Come play in the woods with us on August 6, 2016! The Legend 5 Mile and Half Marathon at Sleepy Hollow State Park in Laingsburg, MI takes you through 2600 acres of hardwood forest, prairie grassland, and around several Michigan lakes. NEW for 2016, medals for ALL distances! The Legend continues, enter if you dare!
PS: Join us in Jackson, MI on August 13th for Michigan's most beautiful half marathon! Running Between the vines is a high class run with a high class finish party! Shirts and wine tasting (with snack food pairings!) to all entrants, finisher's medals and glasses to all finishers! RUNVINES.COM
2016-07-07 - Get out the door!
As runners, we are far more aware of our health status than the average American; we are in touch with our body because we ask a lot of it daily and can tell when things are even a bit out of whack. I continually talk to runners who have found out serious health issues in their early stages because of this awareness, certainly an advantage to get things back on the right track, perhaps saving our life. The same insight makes runners good patients, we will do what it takes to recover and get back out there.
That said, the same goes for our diet, as runners we find out what foods work for us, and the fact is the ones that do are pretty healthy. We naturally avoid high fat meals that don't allow us to get out for a run, either from sluggishness or digestive issues. Running, the sport that keeps on giving, as long as you keep getting out the door.
So, get out the door!
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner, who feels that I am coached through this life by my running!
PS: Come play in the woods with us on August 6, 2016! The Legend 5 Mile and Half Marathon at Sleepy Hollow State Park in Laingsburg, MI takes you through 2600 acres of hardwood forest, prairie grassland, and around several Michigan lakes. NEW for 2016, medals for ALL distances! The Legend continues, enter if you dare!
PS: The August fun continues at the Red Carpet Run! Join us on the 26th in Detroit for a Friday night 5K and party with a CHAMPAGNE FINISH! Shirts to all entrants, NEW for 2016 medals to all finishers, and a (filled!) custom finisher's champagne flute. Join us for a rockin' night! redcarpetrun.com
2016-06-29 - Permission to run then watch TV
The Track and Field Olympic trials start on Friday, perhaps the only legitimate excuse to turn on a TV or live feed on a summer, 4th of July weekend. Might I suggest an early run each day to ward away a bit of the guilt that comes with this pleasure? What can be more inspiring than watching America's best in a final heat as we fire up the grill and celebrate our freedom on independence day!
Let freedom ring,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner who needs to figure out how to use the remote to turn on the TV ... Every 4 years.
PS: Come play in the woods with us on August 6, 2016! The Legend 5 Mile and Half Marathon at Sleepy Hollow State Park in Laingsburg, MI takes you through 2600 acres of hardwood forest, prairie grassland, and around several Michigan lakes. NEW for 2016, medals for ALL distances! The Legend continues, enter if you dare!
PS: The August fun continues at the Red Carpet Run! Join us on the 26th in Detroit for a Friday night 5K and party with a CHAMPAGNE FINISH! Shirts to all entrants, NEW for 2016 medals to all finishers, and a (filled!) custom finisher's champagne flute. Join us for a rockin' night! redcarpetrun.com
2016-06-23 - Permission to blow off your run today
We are only as strong as our weakest link. This is a hard concept for us passionate runners, when running seems so complete on its own. The reality is that we use the same muscles through the same range of motion, causing imbalance and reduced flexibility. One false step out of our normal range of motion or a strength requirement beyond what our running calls for and we are toast. So, I give you permission to blow off the day's run, ONLY, if you replace it with a decent session of core work like yoga, strength training, planks, lunges or similar torture.
Run complete,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner with some weak, rusty links in my chain that need work, dang.
PS: With 2 sessions of yoga during Run Woodstock weekend our chain will be rockin', dig? http://runwoodstock.com/
PS: Get a workout and a healthy meal in! Join us for a FREE event, June 27th.. The Big Salad Raffle Run! Come out and run or walk some miles with us and try for your chance at a FREE PAIR of Brooks Shoes as well as other awesome raffle items! Items include Big Salad gift cards, RF Events Gift Cards and FUN SWAG! 1-6 miles. the more miles... the more chances you have at WINNING! Grab a friend and RSVP Here!
2016-06-15 - Running Saves Lives
No matter how advanced we become as a society there will be dangerous situations where your level of fitness could determine life or death. I was once in an accident situation where one person stayed to stabilize an injured person while one ran for help, no cell service was available and time was critical. Rescue situations occur daily where the strength and endurance of the first responders save lives. That said, there will be situations that occur where we become the first responders, this might happen while out on a trail or remote road run where we come across a situation where our strength or speed could make all the difference.
Get out for a run, it may prepare you to save a life, perhaps your own,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner who is reminded daily by tragic news stories that my fitness could make the difference between being the one needing to be helped and the one able to help others.
PS: Get a workout and a healthy meal in! Join us for a FREE event, June 27th.. The Big Salad Raffle Run! Come out and run or walk some miles with us and try for your chance at a FREE PAIR of Brooks Shoes as well as other awesome raffle items! Items include Big Salad gift cards, RF Events Gift Cards and FUN SWAG! 1-6 miles. The more miles... the more chances you have at WINNING! Grab a friend and RSVP Here!
PS: This is your best chance to get your team into the elusive Dances With Dirt Hell Relay on September 24, 2016! The goat opened up a few coveted spots for the wildest running day of the year, grab 5 of your friends and join us for an extremely fun day in the dirt! To grab up one of the spots before they are gone REGISTER HERE! Need more info? Check it out HERE!
2016-06-08 - Get out the door
Baby Goat here, the Head Goat's youngest 'kid' and admitted "not that obsessed runner". The goat is off celebrating his birthday so I thought I would slip into his hooves and ramble on!
GET OUT THE DOOR! The goat (Randy) has been writing midweek e-mails trying to motivate your butt out the door for years! I've rolled my eyes at my dad, and the "GET OUT THE DOOR" mantra more times than I can count... but I'm going to let you in on a little secret... GET OUT THE DOOR! I've been in a bit of a rut with my running, I am 16 weeks into a training plan and I'm beat! Last week I sucked it up and finally boarded the get out the door train... I hate to say he told me so, but my miles are up, my spirits are up, and I think I'm on my way out of this rut! Was there a lot of walking involved? Sure! Did I randomly PR a 10K on a Wednesday? YUP! It doesn't matter what you achieve out there, but I urge you to put your shoes and a smile on, don't look too hard at your watch or your schedule and have some FUN!
The Baby Goat, who is campaigning to make running FUN again in 2016.
PS: Did you know the Red Carpet Run was the brainchild of this little goat? Join me for a rockin' 5K, Friday night, August 26th in Detroit! Loud music, glamour, the star treatment... and a CHAMPAGNE FINISH! Shirts to all entrants, custom medals and (filled!) champagne flutes to all finishers! redcarpetrun.com
PS: We want YOU to volunteer at the Canton Liberty Run in Canton, MI on June 18th! This silly, themed run is a great way to kick off your Saturday! Volunteers receive a shirt, $30 voucher towards a future RF Events' event and an invitation to our super secret volunteer party!
2016-06-01 - Motivate your butt out the door
The goal of my midweek running rant is to motivate your butt out the door. Perhaps reading some feel good run related stuff will do just that:
There is a new single track trail to explore! RF Events recently donated $1,000 to help fund a well pump for the new trail head at Waterloo Recreation Area. The trail was made possible by a grant from DTE. Ribbon Cutting is June 17th, this is exciting stuff!
RF events is also on a mission in 2016 to get closer to Zero Waste at our events! We had a great start to our Zero Waste program Trail Race weekend. Of the nearly 500 total pounds of waste we processed, less than 50 ended up in the dumpster! The Zero Waste Team is full for Flirt with Dirt this weekend but be sure to check out joining Team Zero Waste HERE so you can get involved with this green team in the future!
Run, volunteer, run,
Randy Step, an admitted obsessed runner who is feeling thankful.
PS: I'm 60! I plan to party all year and I hope to see you out there! Check out my birthday special below.. an awesome chance to get into the wildest running day of the year!
