Made the last leg of my eastward journey Friday morning and
arrived in Austin. Got in a nice workout at climbing gym, then headed to
McKinney Falls State Park, where I was camping for the night. It was a holiday
weekend and the place was packed, but I managed to grab the last campsite
online a few days earlier. My uncle and cousin also arrived in Austin on
Friday, so we met for dinner. Had some time to kill before I could check in to
my hotel on Saturday, so I took a spin on the two bike trails at the park, each
about three miles. Both were hilly, but the particularly fun part was carrying my bike across a creek to get to the Homestead Trail.
While the campground was nice, I was very happy to check-in to a hotel for a
couple of nights, particularly one that was within walking distance of the
start and finish lines for the race. Not sure the bacon cheeseburger and fries
I had for dinner was the most optimal meal for performance, but given that it
was too late to carbo load, I figured why not.
I got up nice and early to grab some breakfast and the all
important cup of coffee and gave myself plenty of time to walk to the gear
check station and starting line of the Austin Marathon and Half Marathon. The forecast wasn’t ideal, with a starting
temp of 41 and a projected finish temp of 49, making it more difficult to
decide what to wear (although much easier than the marathoners, who’d be
finishing with the temps climbing into the 60’s), but I picked an outfit I
hoped wouldn’t leave me too toasty at the end.
Once the gun went off, it took about five-and-a-half minutes
to reach the starting line. I didn’t want to go out too fast and I didn’t, but missed
the one mile sign and by the time I got to the second, I was 40 seconds
behind my goal pace. Given how hilly the course was, this may have been normal.
By mile six, I was another 40 seconds off. Finally, we got some relief from
going uphill in miles 6-8, which were flat or downhill Yay! I picked up the
pace, making up the 1:20 I was behind off my goal time. Unfortunately, the
course started going back uphill, but I kept pushing. The last three miles were
pretty tough. There was a big hill at mile 12 coming up 15th toward
the Capital, which had a gospel group singing at the top, which seemed
appropriate, because if I had felt any worse I would have been convinced I was
about to meet my maker. I really wanted to go sub-2 hours, and had to push the
last few hundred meters to break the barrier at 1:59:59. While this was slower
than my goal time by a couple of minutes, I was pleased with the result on such a hilly course. My time was 100th
in my age group and 2732 overall.
The finish area was in the shade, so I was freezing in my
sweaty clothes until I retrieved my hoodie and winter cap from the gear check
station. I wasn’t too cold to grab some tatsty post-race cookies, though.
Headed back to the hotel, where the staff had set up a table out front and were
passing out water and cold towels to the returning runners. Very nice. I was sore
within an hour after the race ended; I don’t recall that from Columbus, where I
think it took a day to feel sore but perhaps I have just blocked it out. My
Achilles were particularly bad. After a shower, I grabbed some migas and
Mexican coke at nearby place and the stairs I had to climb about killed me.
I’ll admit that my post-breakfast activities of sitting in bed surfing the
web, watching TV and drinking coffee probably weren’t the best was to aid
recovery. Staggered out later for a lunch consisting entirely of dessert (chocolate
cake and vanilla ice cream), then met up with later with my uncle and cousin
for dinner. Once I got back to the
hotel, I set an alarm to remind myself to get up and move every fifteen minutes
while I watched TV, so I had a decent chance of being mobile on Monday.
My legs were still pretty sore on Monday, but I was mobile enough to walk to a nearby restaurant for breakfast. Checked out the local REI and finally purchased the windbreaker I wished I had on several
occasion in J-Tree, and got it for 50% off! Drove to McKinney Falls SP for two more nights of camping and
discovered the problem with camping the day after running a half marathon is
having the leg flexibility to get close enough to the ground to pitch the tent.
Ouch! At least the weather was great (sunny and in the 70's) and there was no urgency to get it up
quickly. Had some delicious Tex-Mex at Trudy's; thanks L and M for the suggestion.
I felt much better on Tuesday morning, so my worries about not being able mobile enough to get out of my tent were unfounded. Went for a bike ride, then scoped out the bouldering area. Most of the stuff is pretty hard, but
I found a nice area for traversing. Lots of chalk on the rock made me feel right at home.
Packed up the campsite Wednesday morning, but not until it started raining. Maybe someday I will learn this
lesson and break camp while it's still dry. Drove to Houston, since I was flying out of there the next morning. The weather was warm and windy, which dried my tent very quickly once I hung it from the
railing at the hotel. Worked up a good appetite climbing at a local gym then enjoyed some tres leche for dinner. Mmm. Went to bed excited for my trip to DC to visit my friend J.
