Valentines Weekend

Wow - what a weekend!

Friday afternoon Mom and Dad came through Houston and picked me up on their way to San Antonio. My nieces' school was doing their first ever production of Beauty and the Beast. Molly was Chip, the teacup, and my sister was the choreographer. I was one proud aunt and sister that night! They did a fabulous job. I was absolutely beaming throughout, and couldn't stop from laughing out loud when Bennett, my 3 yr old niece, was singing along at full volume on some of the songs. She's heard them for months now and saw no reason not to sing along this time since she had every other time they played previously.

Saturday Mom and Dad handed me off to Jon in San Marcos at the outlet mall. The place was an absolute zoo - I guess because the sun came out for the first time in ages. I did score a few things at Nike and a little clutch I'd been wanting from Kate Spade for a while. We didn't have tons of time because I still had to get to the expo for packet pickup and our 4th annual Houston invades Austin pasta dinner was at 6.

We were able to walk to/from the expo which was very nice. Dinner was fun - there were about 55 or so people from Houston and Beaumont there and it was nice to catch up with a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while.

Jon kept asking me what time I was waking up Sunday and I think it was stressing him out that I didn't have a plan yet. It was pretty funny. He said to add a few extra minutes to open my presents before I left for the race. I finally decided I was getting up at 6 and I think that was later than he even wanted to get up and he was just spectating!

Sunday morning came and I was planning to get out the door around 6:40 as I was close to a mile from the start line. I opened my birthday present (tri shorts) and Valentines present (tri top) from Jon, ate my Uncrustable for breakfast, and got out around 6:45 or so. I did laugh a bit thinking I might have been cutting it a tiny bit close, but it ended up being no big deal. Jogging across the Congress bridge in the dark of early morning just before the race was pretty neat. I got to the start corral and there was tooooons of room and everyone was very spread out. I walked back to about the 3:40 pace group and figured that was good enough - of course I wasn't going to run that fast but I was honestly too lazy to walk much further back. My plan worked perfectly - I was able to get a small warm up in and did not have to wait very long at the start - maybe 5-7 minutes. It was plenty of time to get my garmin, race belt, music, etc situated, but not long enough to get cold or have to go to the bathroom again.

The race started without much commotion and I was on my way. The first 3+ miles are a steady uphill (i.e. VERY hard on Houston legs). Jon was just before the first mile getting to test out his new camera. I really had no idea what to expect for the day, but hoped to keep things between a 9:30 and 10:00 pace for most of the race. We finally headed back downhill around mile 3.5 and the next few miles passed quickly. I saw Jon again right at mile 6 and was beginning to think he had the right idea for the day (spectating, not racing). The next few miles were relatively flat, and spent mentally preparing for the hell that was to come. There is one b* of a hill just after mile 8 that is short and steep, then a mile and a half or so of flat again before the real hills set in. The good thing about them though is for the most part you get a down for each up. I ran into Paige from Houston on the first of the hills that last for the last 3.5 miles of the race and ended up staying with her and her husband for most of the rest of the race. Talking to her completely took my mind off the awful ups and downs and I felt like I was just on a normal fun Saturday morning long run with friends. It was actually quite nice. She asked how my heart was and I looked down for the first time in a while and saw 172 and said "actually not that bad!"

The cruelest hill of the race is at mile 12 and is just a joke it is so big/long/steep. You need a hiking stick to get up it and walking is just as fast as running. It didn't totally kill me, but your spirits are crushed when you think you're done and you get over a little hump at the top and see it keeps going!

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Anyway, I survived and came in about 20 seconds slower than Houston. I'll take it, especially considering I've done one 10 mile run since then and my next longest was only 6 miles. I was also happy to get done to get to the real business: brunch at Moonshine. Wow - that was heavenly. We got there 10 minutes before it opened and still had a 25 minute wait, so apparently we weren't the only ones with the same idea.

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Jon and I waddled home after that, stopping to take a few pictures on the Congress bridge. The sun was shining and it was just a beautiful day...not beautiful enough to stop me from taking a much needed nap when we got back though! All in all, I ended up logging just over 16 miles for the day including my warm up, race, and a little over 2 miles of walking to brunch and home after. Not a bad workout day! Below are my splits from the race - as it seems to be with every race, my garmin was off after a few miles so I lapped it at the mile 7 marker to get back on track. I'm shocked and very pleased with how low my average heart rate was: 173!! I ended up ~20 seconds slower than Houston, but a full 10bpm lower heart rate average than Houston on a much, much more difficult course. I'm very pleased with that! I also forgot to mention that the theme for this year's race was "Run Austin. Love Austin." They totally played up the Valentines date of the race and I, of course, loved it. The finisher's shirt was simple and said "Ran Austin" with a few tiny hearts here and there. We also got backpacks this year at packet pickup instead of a participant shirt which was nice - it was put to good use during the race because Jon used it to carry his and my stuff around.

One of the several highlights of the weekend was getting to finally meet Miss Amelia Rose, on her one month birthday which happened to actually be her due date. She was super cute and tiny, at barely 6 lbs, but actually quite sturdy for those little 6 lbs. After visiting with Stephanie, Bill, and Amelia, Jon and I went to a new sushi place downtown for our Valentines dinner. The food was amazing. Jon said it was some of the freshest sushi he'd had and I had mongolian steak that was the best steak I've had in a long long time. Like the old folks we are, we were home before 8:30.

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Monday the sun came out again, and despite the fact it was in the 30s, I was very excited to get out and play. Turns out I forgot tri shorts, so after a quick stop at Austin TriCyclist, we headed to the Veloway for a short recovery ride. Ya, not so much. There's not really anything "recovery" about biking in Austin on any day, not to mention a day when the winds were 20-30 mph. I was a bit angry with the wind but glad I rode because I have not really been sore from the race and I'm certain walking so much after and that bike ride helped. I was sore for 4-5 days after Houston and this time around I just have some minor shin splints and everything else feels pretty normal.

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My bike ride was not nearly long enough to justify the meal I ate at Hula Hut, but I didn't care! We made a quick trip to Mellow Johnny's and were quite disappointed in what we found. Everything there is soooooo overpriced. Jon had thought he wanted to get a bike jersey, but the short sleeve ones were $120. Seriously? I had looked at getting him one for his birthday back in October but was similarly turned off then as well for the price for something not nearly worth that.

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After that we headed back to Houston. It was a fabulous weekend, and, as usual, I want to move to Austin. I enjoyed the time with my family and Jon did a great job of making me feel special on my birthday and Valentines day - too bad those things only come once a year :-)

I will post pictures once we get them off Jon's camera - hopefully we got a few good ones.

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Something else neat about the race/weekend was that Sunday marked six years to the day since I did my first marathon. That marathon was Austin, on my 23rd birthday. I have raced the full or half there all but one year since then. I guess you could say I'm a creature of habit about some things! It has been quite the six years since then, and finishing that race on that day just opened doors that I did not even know existed before I crossed the finish line.