An Afternoon Constitutional

Hey gang.

We had some decent weather today - sunny and in the low 50s - so, seeing how we weren't really doing much of anything around the house, Kris and I decided to take the dogs for a walk up at Midland City Forest.  I've been walking with a 20-lb weighted vest for about an hour a day lately, and I've been wanting to try it out on rugged terrain (I have a tentative hiking trip planned with the guys next month, so it's good training.)

Abby and her BFF, Ella, came along with us at the last minute, and we spent about two hours walking the wooded trails.  The dogs got absolutely filthy, and everyone was exhausted by the time we came home, but it made for a solid afternoon.

Check it out. . . 

Prior to taking the dogs out for their afternoon constitutional, Kris wanted to trim their nails.  It's never an issue with Watson, but we have to go through an entire song-and-dance routine with Samson (shown here, not happy with what's going on.)  We clip his nails outside, so he's somewhat distracted by the outdoor stimuli, and I have to hold him the entire time, with Kris swooping in outside of his line of vision in order to clip as many as his toenails as she can while he continuously jerks his paws away.  We only ever get like 75% of them at a time (on a good day.)

Arriving at Midland City Forest.  This is a perfect place to walk dogs - there provide poop bags and trash receptacles spread out through the trails to prevent assholes from leaving their dog's crap (or trash) throughout the woods.

After passing by the ol' Sledding Hill, we took the center trail back towards the heart of the woods (we let the girls walk the dogs, they were all about it.)

Awesome weather for today - had it been about ten degrees warmer it would have been perfect.

The forest hasn't sprung to live quite yet, at this time of year it still looks like the outskirts of Mordor (Ithilion, for you non-nerds out there.)

We veered off the main trails pretty early on, sticking to these more intense 'bike trails' for the majority of our time there.  They're more hilly, and wind up and down hills much more.

This was ideal practice for my upcoming hiking trip with Ryan and Mitch (tentatively slotted for April 28th) - tackling these inclines in a weighted vest was great conditioning.

The girls love this rippling plankway (whatever the hell it is.) They ran the dogs back and forth across it a few times.

Watson wasn't a big fan, but Samson loved it.

Consulting the trail guide, attempting to find our way back to the front entrance - we were miles in at this point.

Back on the main trail, headed for the front entrance.

We took a wrong turn at one point and ended up in a low-lying area that was totally submerged.  We lost the trail and had to double back to our starting point, losing about twenty minutes.

Fortunately no one but the two dogs got wet.

After a couple more miles, we made it back to the front entrance, where the girls sprinted the dogs down the still-snowy-in-spots Sledding Hill. 

Later in the evening, while watching a movie, it was clearly evident that the afternoon and wore out the dogs.  He never falls asleep like this.

- Brian

May the 4th Be with You

Happy Star Wars Day, America.

Did I ever tell you guys of my fondness for this franchise?  I'm kind of a fan of the original trilogy, and may or may not have committed the original three movies to memory (not so much the prequels and sequels, though - as a purist, I wasn't impressed.)

My younger daughter, Abby, is also big into Star Wars, and taking this into consideration, Kris (who herself can't name more than four or five characters from the franchise) and I decided to sign the whole family up for a Star Wars-themed 5K race through Midland City Forest.  We had a few other friends of ours running the race with their families as well, so Friday evening, once we were all out of work and school, we headed out across town to run through along a 3-mile course of mud, rain puddles, fallen branches, and ewoks.

Check it out. . .

Kris did the girls' hair up in a variety of styles from the movies, with Abby choosing to emulate Rey's hair from Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

Alayna wanted Padme's hairstyle from Episode II: Attack of the Clones.  Thank God no one asked me to help out with any of this - I can barely make a ponytail.

At Midland City Forest (Abby insisted on making a staff like Rey has in the films.)

(Kris went as Rey, too.)

The Houghs, ready to race.

With the Shepherds, Johnsons, and Larsons.

Another shot of the Houghs.  This time in front of the back entrance to an Endorian Imperial Bunker.

Imperial dance party with the kids as the race gets ready to start.

Queued up and ready to start.

Our party started out walking so that the herd could thin out a bit.  With so many people congested together, it was really hard to avoid the large puddles of mud and water that choked the course (it had rained like pure hell the day before.)

Mapping out our next path (as if the 5K wasn't roped off anyway.)

Sophie and Abby.

Kinda wish we would've had golf karts ourselves. . .

Kris was worried she wouldn't be ready to run a 5K, as she hasn't really kept up on running lately.  I told her repeatedly she had NOTHING to worry about - we were doing this with kids, and they have little to no energy themselves.

Poor Pete had to carry his kid for the duration of the race.  At least I didn't have to do that.

Andrea and Kris.

(Kinda wish I would've stolen one of these signs for my garage.)

Abby and Ella

The Cannonball.  Still walking.

 

 

There was a bend in the path that was obstructed by a frickin' pond, and could only be circumvented when someone heroic - like me - bent back a large tree branch so that people could walk down a small sliver of harder mud along the side.  Not all heroes wear capes, people.

. . . yeah.

Losing gas.  Quickly.

Kris requested an end-of-race selfie.  Note the lack of sweat - it took us a frickin'  hour to finish, as we were forced to walk the majority of the 3 miles.  In fact, Alayna was the very last 'runner' to cross the Finish Line.  In true Hough fashion. 

The moms pose for more selfies (by this point, all us dads had retired to a sports bar on the other side of town and left the womenfolk to retrieve the kids once they were done with their laser tag games (or whatever the hell they were doing.)

Preparing to Battle for Endor. . .

- Brian

Warrior Dash

What's up fellow out-of-shape Internet users.

About a month ago, my brother Chris texted me and asked if I'd be willing to do Warrior Dash with him towards the end of July.  His wife, Nicole, had been doing it for years and got him into doing it the last two years since they've been together.  Well, needless to say, Warrior Dash isn't the sort of thing a pregnant woman - let alone a woman pregnant with two babies - would be cool with doing, so she was out.  So was the other guy Chris had offered Nicole's ticket to when she decided to up and get pregnant after they had bought their tickets.

So he asked me.

And if you folks know anything about me, know this:  I'm terribly out of shape.

I'm not fat or anything, but I rarely exercise.  I'm on my feet all day at work, so during the school year I rarely feel up for running after wrangling teenagers for eight hours a day.  Granted, I ran a 5K the last couple years for St. Patrick's Day, but that's about it.  I honestly didn't think I'd be able to do it.

It took no small degree of convincing on Chris' part before I finally relented and agreed to do with him.  For those of you unfamiliar with Warrior Dash, it's a 5K obstacle course through the woods, where you scale walls, crawl through tunnels, swim across ponds, navigate your way through trenches, climb through water-spraying death traps, jump over fire, and drag yourself through mud under barb wire.  Endurance is definitely more important than strength.

Nicole hung out at the Finish Line and snapped a few pics as we made our way through the final stages of the course.  We were covered in mud and had to discard our shoes at the end, but fortunately Chris had snagged a few used pairs for us from guys he works with.  After waiting in line for a half hour to showever off the caked-on layers of mud we had accrued, we drove home and I promptly took a two-hour nap, thoroughly exhausted.  I'm definitely doing it next year.

I also was able to download a few pics some event photographers took throughout the race, so I leave you now with some photographical evidence of my day pretending to be somewhat athletic.

Rock and roll.

Clean and dapper, pre-race.  Note the lack of mud, sweat and tears.

The firs half of the course was mostly running through sand, through the woods.  There were few obstacles for the first leg of the race, but running through sand was absolutely brutal on your ankles - my joints were pissed at me by the end of the day.  There weren't any photographers in the first six or seven obstacles, but they had one stationed at the Fisherman's Catch, shown here.

Chris charges over the Warrior Roast in the home stretch, near the finish line.

I am all that is Man.

After the Warrior Roast, you had to scale a wall and then slide down this water slide - who doesn't love water slides? - before splashing through a giant mud puddle.

Approaching the last obstacle of the course:  Muddy Mayhem.

This wasn't hard at all, but it was obviously pretty gross.

Warrior Dash.  Vanquished.

Until 2018. . .

- Brian