Deep in the Heart of Texas - Longhorn 70.3

Austin Trip - Day One:

A little of this.

And a little of this.

Some of this.

Some for me, too!

Then on to this!

I left DM and, after flying thru Minneapolis/St. Paul, arrived on time in Austin. I met Crystal and Jan at the rental car place; we loaded up and headed to the hotel for a quick clean-up before heading to downtown. Jan dropped Crystal and I off at Stubb's to pick-up our tickets for the Gary Allan concert at the will-call window. We were there by 7pm, but all the signs at the venue said that Gary didn't go on until 10pm, so we headed out in search of some supper.

We navigated 6th Street and found some food at the Iron Cactus. The beer was cold, and the food was tasty. Still needing to kill a little time, we found a little Irish Pub nearby and caught up on all that we'd been missing in each other's lives since Crystal moved to North Carolina.

The concert was at an outdoor venue, and the weather was outstanding, but the smokers were out in full-force, so we had to work to keep out of the fog. Gary came on stage right on time, but we quickly realized he'd be quite over-served in the hours leading up to the show. Aside from staggering around the stage and forgetting the words to three songs (which he'd written himself), the concert was pretty good. We charmed the bartender out of two bottles of water by telling him we used to be sisters (he'd been hitting the beer pretty hard himself). A quick taxi ride got us back to the hotel and asleep by midnight. Not exactly the kind of night one needs two nights prior to a half Ironman, but whatever...

Austin Trip - Day Two:

We really only had a couple of things that we needed to take care of on Saturday for Sunday's race, so we had some breakfast and headed downtown to get started. The first stop was to pick up my bike and gear that had been driven to Austin by a Team Vardo friend who was also participating in the race. Then we hit the Whole Foods for lunch and some much needed snacks (and a couple bottles of wine...), we registered for the race, and finally we visited Mellow Johnny's to have a look around.

By the time we'd run all the errands, it was time to find our way to the race venue for a recon and bike drop-off. Crystal tried to stay cool in the shade while Jan and I rode and swam for about an hour. Once the bikes we safely nestled in for the night, we cruised back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner.

We had a great dinner with Jeff and Liz Goodman, Tony and Karen Oberman, and Jan. We laughed and drank a couple bottles of wine while enjoying some great food. I *had* to have ice cream (pre-race ritual), so Crystal and I staved off the post-dinner food-coma by walking the nine or ten blocks to Amy's Ice Creams for a little treat. It was lights-out for all of us around 10pm.

Austin Trip - Day Three:

The alarm woke Jan and I at 4:30am. We tried to get out without waking Crystal who was going to catch a ride with Liz and Karen later in the morning. We made it to the parking lot on time and caught an early bus to the race site, but the lines were long!

My wave started 26 minutes after the first wave. The lake was 77.5 degrees - wetsuit-legal, barely - and clear (by Iowa standards). It was the least congested swim start I've had in years. And, considering all the time I've spent in the pool in the last few weeks (read: VERY little), I had a great swim. So great, in fact, that Crystal was amazed that I was out of the water in 30 minutes. I would have been really excited about a 30-minute swim, but as it turns out, the course was short. Rats. Tony had even mentioned something about thinking the swim looked short before the race. The guy is good!

After a decent transition, I cruised out onto the bike course. I had no idea what to expect, as we hadn't ridden more than a couple miles of it during the venue recon the day before. As it turned out the course was about 80% chipseal and 20% asphalt. The roads were very rough, and the wind picked up as the race progressed. I was able to maintain a pretty decent pace throughout, did well with my nutrition, and didn't launch any water bottles. Soon, I was back at transition with a 3-hour bike under my (race) belt. On to the half marathon...

Check out the line of dirt on my back following the bike ride...

I felt decent as I headed out, but soon the heat (and my own lack of run preparation) slowed me. I took to walking the hills and concentrating on getting plenty of water into my body. The two-loop course was about half asphalt and half dirt trail. We spent a good deal of time around the transition area, so I was able to see the Ames/DM fans and my aunt and uncle from Austin quite a few times. Their presence added a little spring to my step and sent me away feeling a little better. The aid stations were pretty fun, too - the costumes and cheering were great. Two trips up the big hill - Quadzilla - was plenty for me, and I counted down the last few miles by reminding myself that they were the last few miles of my whole 2008 season, and I needed to just suck it up and embrace the pain of it all. I was glad to see the finish line, and even happier to see that I had kept myself under the 6 hour mark, my goal for this event.

After some pics with the DM gang, my family, and a longhorn steer, we marched back to the parking area. I loaded the IronMaiden into Chris' van, then Crystal and I climbed in with Phil and Susan to start the second half of the vacation and the part I was most looking forward to - the Tex-Mex eating 3-day binge!

Austin Trip - Days Four and Five:

Phil and Susan claimed that it was the first cloudy, rainy day for quite some time, and, of course, it happened to be the day we had a boat ride planned on Lake Travis. To heck with the weather, we went for the boat ride anyway. It was fun and cool - I was glad we did it!

Monday night we went to my cousin Molly's house for supper with her husband Johnny, their son Cody, and my other cousin Paige and her son Jack. We all enjoyed the fantastic enchiladas, beer, brownies and ice cream, and watching Jack eat hotdogs with grape jelly. It was really good to see my cousins and their families. It had been too long!



Tuesday morning, Phil and I enjoyed looking through a box of old family memories together. Crystal even sat in, as she's basically part of the family, too. We had one more meal of Tex-Mex at the El Arroyo - The Ditch, and made the obligatory stop at James Avery Craftsman. Soon we were all back at the airport and ready to come home!

It was another great trip, and I'm so glad I decided to squeeze in one last race before the tri season ended.