If I ever get married, maybe it can be to someone who’ll consent to living in an apartment next door, or a duplex, or something. I’ve become pretty accustomed to having my own space…
I had a nice weekend in Austin, though this morning has gotten off to a rough start. I have a sore throat and a looming dentist appointment in an hour. There is no coffee, at least not that I can find. And the work I thought I was going to do today has already been done by one of my workaholic colleagues. Some days I don’t know why I bother getting out of bed.
Anyway. We met at Starbucks at 10 on Saturday and caravanned up to Austin. We arrived around 1:00, and were offended to find that we had to pay $7 to park at the expo center in order to go inside for 10 minutes to pick up our packets. Pretty absurd. From there, we went to the hotel, then to a massive group dinner at the very-crowded Spaghetti Warehouse. Leila and Brian even joined us, so it was good to see them, especially since our proposed dinner plans for Sunday didn’t work out. We all were in bed with the lights out by 9:30 Saturday night.
We got up Sunday morning at 5, ate some breakfast, and got ready for the race. Our hotel was literally about 300 yards from the start line, and it was nice to be able to sit inside until about 6:30, when we finally had to head out into the freezing weather. It was about 38 degrees outside (it actually snowed in Austin Saturday morning), and I was not happy to be standing in the cold in my t-shirt and shorts. I ended up running in a long sleeve t-shirt, shorts, and gloves, and was fine while running. As soon as I finished, I picked up my clothing drop-off bag and bundled back up in a dry t-shirt, sweatshirt, and sweatpants.
From the finish, we walked down to the marathon finish line, about a mile and a half away (the marathon course zig-zagged a lot in the last half). After staring into the sun watching lots of marathoners finish, we cheered really loudly for Buzz, and I got my first sunburn of the year. Sunburn. In February. Ugh.
Results from this weekend are as follows:
HALF MARATHON
Ron – 2:05:47
Jeremy – 2:10:22
Jess – 2:13:35
Sarah – 2:16:35MARATHON
Laurie – 3:55:20
Josh – 3:57:44
Buzz – 4:35:34
I was happy with my finish. Buzz ran the entire way with me before I peeled off to finish while she kept chugging along. We were incredibly consistent–you could have set your watch by our 10:30 miles. I would have finished right on pace with a 2:17:30 half marathon, but I had saved just enough in the tank to speed up for the last mile, and sprint the final tenth. It was enough to get me a 2:16:35.
That’s a minute and a half slower than the Houston Half, but I wasn’t expecting to beat that time. Austin, after all, has hills, and while there weren’t any huge ones to climb, the constant slightly-uphill, slightly-downhill trends took their toll. My legs bothered me more during the race, and my knees were sore all day Saturday and yesterday. I really wasn’t sore at all after Houston; the day after Houston, I went rock climbing. But last night, rock climbing was off my radar of possible activities, and I ended up just sitting at home watching TV. Fortunately, my legs are feeling much better today. I may try a very slow jog tonight to loosen them up.
On the whole, though, I think I’m done with long-distance running for the moment. My next goal is the Houston Marathon next January. I plan to maintain my current level of running fitness, and do a 10-12 miler once a month or so. Then, in late September when the weather starts to cool down, I’ll start training for the full marathon. Till then, I have plenty to keep me busy. I’m doing the MS150 bike ride from Houston to Austin in mid-April, and there’s the Danskin triathlon in mid-June, and the Peachtree in July.
Gotta run. More maybe later.
