Spokes and Spurs Ride

They postponed the Spokes and Spurs ride last weekend since the weather was awful, cold, rainy, and windy. It was beautiful today. I would say this was my first "long" (43 miles) road ride since Longhorn. This ride was also really hilly.

Hills just before the last rest stop

I dropped Jeff off at the shop on my way to the ride, he and Nic were doing bike repairs at the last rest stop. I got out to the Spirit Reins Ranch and got registered with no problem, I ran into Coach Gina and talked with her for a few minutes. Just before we started I also ran into Maggie. Jeff put a different stem on my bike last night, so I spent the first few miles just getting used to the slightly different way my bike was handling (and climbing hills). The signs on this ride were great, there was never any question about exactly where to go. There were rest stops about every 10 miles and I had decided that I would stop at all of them since this was my first long ride and I didn't need to try to go fast or anything.

The first rest stop had Girl Scout cookies- yum! The second had homemade oatmeal cookies- yum again! The hills were tough but not too bad. Some of the downhills were really steep, I'm probably the only person in the world who hates going downhill fast. It freaks me out. One was so steep that I actually got off and walked down it. The last rest stop was sponsored by Performance Bike and Team Roadkill. When I got there I got to see Jeff, and I hung out for a few minutes. For the last few miles the wind picked up and I had a headwind back to the ranch. I didn't even mind, it was such a beautiful day and at that point I only had a few more miles to ride anyway.

They had a transition area and a 5k run course set up, so I decided I would do a very short run, about 15 minutes. I saw Maggie finishing her ride while I was running.

After the ride they had fajitas for lunch, a live band, and pony rides. This was great ride, I couldn't believe how well organized it was and it was a beautiful day.

After the ride, Jeff and I went out to Flat Creek Estate Winery to pick up our wine club case of wine. We had lunch on their patio. It was the perfect day to be outside.

Things we Love about Austin

Wow, I haven't posted anything here in over a month! I guess that means it's been a quiet month. For the most part it has, although my parents visited at the end of February. My dad took some great pictures of wildflowers and the UT campus, we had a lot of fun in Austin, but we didn't take any pictures of Austin fun that weekend. My parents loved Homeslice Pizza and the Zilker Botanical Garden.

Since we have lived in Austin for over 6 months now, I thought I'd start a list of things we love about Austin.

Barton Springs Pool
TriZones
Town Lake Trail
Jeff and I can both bike ride to work
First Thursday
Kayaking on Town Lake
Curbside recycling
There are tons of beautiful parks all over Austin
Festivals (Austin has a festival for almost everything)
You can get almost anywhere in Austin in about 15 minutes (except during rush hour)
Tons of great places to eat
Zilker Botanical Garden
Museums on campus
Tons of cool, unique local businesses
Walnut Creek Park
St. Edward's Park

Austin Half Marathon

I have been looking forward to the Austin Half Marathon ever since last year. Most of my Houston friends were coming to town to run, so I knew it would be a lot of fun!Cassie, Kim, and David at packet pickup. David ended up not running due to an injury
Everyone got into town by Saturday afternoon and we went to packet pickup. It was a little more crazy than I had hoped. I picked up Richard and Kim at their hotels before going to the convention center, but with all the traffic and roads closed it took longer than expected. The packet pickup was also really crowded.

Ingrid and Gillian at packet pickup. Austin was Gillian's first half marathon.

While we were in the long line at packet pickup, I realized there was no way I was going to make it back up to my neighborhood to pick Jeff up from work before dinner. Luckily Del offered to pick Jeff up on the way to dinner. That didn't go as smoothly as planned either, sorry Del! In the end they got to dinner and we all had a great time.

Jane, Del, and Kim at Spaghetti Warehouse

Steph and her brother Kevin. Kevin came out to spectate on a bike and ended up getting into an accident and breaking his collar bone! Yikes! Steph said he's going to be fine.

Richard and his daughter Amanda

It was also Kathleen's birthday on Saturday!

I was super excited when I woke up on race morning. Everyone got ready and we got to the Trizones tent earlier than expected. Coach Tracy was just setting up the tent went we walked over. Race morning was a little warmer than we expected, in the 50's

Jeff biked the course to spectate this year instead of walking.

Coach Tracy and I pre-race

Matt, Cassie, Del, me, and Ingrid

Ann, Kasey, me, Annette, and Red

Richard, me, and Cassie just before the start with the Capitol in the background

Jeff said this guy ran out in front at the start, wouldn't it be fun to be able to run that fast!

I started the race with Richard since we planned to run about the same pace. I told him it was fun to see the mass of people running up Congress at the start. Jeff got a good picture, but it just doesn't do it justice.

Richard and I ran up Congress and enjoyed the awesome crowd support, I pointed out Hey Cupcake to him and we smelled breakfast tacos from Guero's. The first 3 miles were mostly uphill, but we were keeping pace. We chatted, although Richard talked more than me, since I usually have a tough time talking while I run. We turned onto 1st Street and I knew we'd have about 3 miles of mostly downhill and flat before the rolling hills on Lake Austin and Enfield. I was really enjoying his company, but when he stopped to fix his sock, I decided to go ahead in hopes of my PR. I saw Jody and Cindy from Trizones between miles 4 and 5 and I saw Jeff around mile 6.

When we got out of the truck at the race site, I realized I had forgotten a hat. I never run without a hat. I was really annoyed! It was fairly windy so my hair was blowing around and bothering me the entire race.

I stayed on pace till mile 7, but I could tell I was breathing a little too hard and getting tired. I started to slow down between miles 7 and 8 and Richard caught up to me between 8 and 9. I was really happy to see him. He seemed to be feeling pretty good except for some calf cramping. I knew I was in trouble when I couldn't catch my breath during our 1 minute walk breaks. Around mile 10, I knew I wasn't going to hit my PR, I was disappointed, but I just tried to enjoy the rest of the race and do the best I could. Around mile 10.5 Richard went ahead and ended up finishing 3 minutes ahead of me. I saw Kenneth, Tom, and Carolyn at mile 11 at the top of the BIG hill and I saw Jeff just after that. Coming in to the finish was fun with all the spectators cheering. I had a great time running even though I didn't run quite as fast as I had hoped. I ended up finishing in 2:43, my goal was 2:32.

After finishing we all hung out and ate cupcakes at the Trizones tent.

I REALLY enjoyed my cupcake since I hadn't had any sugar at all since Christmas day

Gillian really enjoyed her cupcake too, I'm not sure how she ended up making such a mess! She finished her first half marathon at a smokin' sub 2 hour pace!

After cupcakes we watched people finishing the full marathon for a little while.

Coach Tracy coming in to the finish, check out those leg muscles!

Maggie and I at the Trizones tent.

We went back to the tent, but we were too hungry and tired to wait for most of the full marathoners to finish. I was sad that I didn't get to see Kasey, Terri, Liz, Annette, and Elle finish the marathon, but they all did well.

Ingrid, Steph, and I

Steph did the full marathon at Houston and decided to do the full at Austin too (3 weeks apart). I told her she was crazy to do both! She proved me completely wrong and got a huge 12 minute PR! Her first marathon under 5 hours on a really tough course!

We went to Chez Zee for lunch and while there, I realized that most of the Houston crew got half marathon PRs. Ingrid, Kim, Cassie, Jane, and Del all PRed!

I had an absolutely awesome weekend, the only thing that could have made it more perfect would have been running a 2:32 half marathon.

Next year I plan to run the full Austin Marathon as my first marathon, so I'll run the half at Decker and at 3M in preparation. So hopefully I can get a 2:30 half marathon at one of those (you never know, it could happen at Decker even though it's crazy hilly)

Death Race 2009

Nic's second bike race was themed after a movie called Death Race 2000, it's a 70's movie and it's AWFUL! I only watched about 5 minutes before I got bored. The idea was the people raced across the country and hit as many people as possible for points. This race was based on points and racers got extra points for dressing up like characters from the movie. One guy even had his bike "in character" This race also started and ended at the Drungo Ice House. It's the perfect location and a great place to hang out. They have great food and a nice patio. Plus the owner, Mike, is really bike friendly.
From Drungo the racers went up to Performance Bike on Anderson Lane.
Getting ready to take off

Behind the store at Performance, Nic had set up cardboard cutouts and lots of plastic babies. He had a point scale for cutouts, big babies and small babies.

The racers were back really fast! They all seemed to have fun and got a little crazy getting all the cutouts and babies back to Drungo. It was so much fun to see everyone come back and see what they had and hear about what happened at Performance. It would have been really fun to be in both places at once!

The same guy who won Nic's first race won this one too, I think his name is Ernie.

Then there was the track stand competition

The foot down (ride in a tiny circle) contest. I think Shannon, the co-owner of a pedicab company won.And a drag race down Rio Grande
Nic built this swing bike, it's hinged in the middle and Nic can actually get the rear wheel to come around almost to the front wheel!

We all had a great time and can't wait to see what crazy ideas Nic comes up with for bike race #3.

3M Half Marathon

I decided to run the 3M half marathon a couple of weeks ago, mostly just because lots of my Trizones friends were planning to run it and I knew it would be fun.

Race morning was cold, about 40 degrees.

Joe, me, and Julie pre-race, I had enough layers on that I didn't need a trash bag to keep in the body heat. Everyone makes fun of my crazy face mast, but at least I wasn't too cold. We were waiting for the start and I thought maybe I should go use the porta-pottys again, I said something to someone about having to pee and they said "it's just nerves now" I though yeah, it'll go away once we get going. and if not, I can always stop along the way. They usually have restrooms at every water station.

We finally got started, I started with Julie, Sandra, and Julie's dad Joe. We planned to run the first half at 12:00 min/mile then speed up in the second half. I felt great from the start. Sandra, Julie, and Joe all have the cool Garmins that tell them their pace, I don't. I can't count the number of times they told me to slow down a little. They did a great job of keeping me from going out too fast. By about mile 2 I took off my jacket and pulled the face mask around my neck. At the first water station there was a long line for the porta-potties, so I decided to wait. We were going at about an 11:30 pace and I was feeling great! At about mile 3 or 4 we saw Laura and Little Pam pass us, I ran with them and chatted for a minute, but they are faster than me and they were running the relay so I didn't need to try to keep up with them. As we came to the turn onto Shoal Creek at about mile 5.5 I started looking for Jeff. I saw him and sped up so I could say hi and give him my jacket and gloves.

Running by Jeff on Shoal Creek. Julie, Joe, and Sandra are behind me. After I ran by Jeff and Kenneth, I slowed back down. Elle and Diane at Shoal Creek.

After seeing everyone at Shoal Creek, Jeff and Kenneth headed to the finish line.

As we got close to the halfway point at the Northcross post office, I realized there was no way I was going to finish the race without stoping for a potty break. We got to the halfway point and there were porta-potties, but they had really long lines. We turned onto Burnet and I was really watching for any place I could stop. I saw a Texaco and told Julie, Sandra, and Joe that I was going in there, I sped up but as I got close I saw it was closed! So I kept going looking for somewhere I could stop. Finally I saw an open Mexican restaurant, I ran in and found the bathroom and ran out as fast as I could. It took 2 minutes or less. I thought maybe I could catch Julie, Sandra, and Joe, but I wasn't going to kill myself to do it, especially since I knew the gradual uphill on North Loop was coming up. I made it up the North Loop hill and still felt good. My quads were getting sore and I was feeling a little hungry since I didn't drink enough Infinit during the first half. I turned onto Duval and only had 3 miles to go! I started doing the math in my head and figured I could be really close to my PR. I sped up a little, but not too much since I had to keep it up for 3 miles. The last half mile I really tried to speed up, I knew I was close to my PR. As I crossed MLK, I could see the Trizones tent on top of the parking garage, it was awesome! I could see people up there yelling and cowbelling! Then right near the finish, I saw Jeff, Kenneth, and Tom taking pictures. Iwas going as fast as I could to try for a PR. As I came in to the finish, I was sure I was about a minute off my PR. My official time was 2:32:53, just 36 seconds slower than my PR! I was really mad about having to make the bathroom stop when I saw my time!

finish line from the Trizones tent, what a view!

Carolyn and her daughter Tina coming in to the finish. This was Tina's first half marathon!

Sandra and I after the race. It was really cold after the race. We were all freezing while we watched everyone finish. Julie, Sandra, and Joe finished about 2 minutes ahead of me.

Jody coming to the finish line with Kenneth and Vickie congratulating her along the way.

Trizones had an awesome set up on top of the parking garage, food, drinks, great view of the race and even Performance Wellness giving post-race massages! Awesome!

Jeff got this shot of the top of the Capitol from the "Trizones Penthouse"

Cindy and Sarah at Taco Deli after the race. This was the first time Jeff and I had been to Taco Deli, it was Yummy!

Tom and Carolyn at Taco Deli

Final thoughts:

This race was a lot of fun and I'm really glad I did it!

It's really fun to know a course so well, we ran it a few weeks ago, part of it was in my neighborhood and most of the last 4 miles is part of my bike route to work.

My quads are pretty sore already, I assume from all the downhills in this race, and maybe from biking to work all week too.

Nutritionally, I should have drank more Infinit in the first half of the race, it was really hard to drink anything when I had to pee!

I still think I had an amazing run last year at the Austin half, and the fact that I didn't beat that time at 3M which is mostly downhill just proves it, especially since I have trained better this year. Hopefully I can have an amazing race at the Austin Half again this year!