Saturday, June 24, 2006

Gotta Love Austin

I woke up this morning at 6am to meet Jim for a run. Rain was sprinkling, but nothing major. Around 7 it started pooring down rain. I mean, it was a serious downpour with thunder and lightning. Jim and I were planning to meet for an easy 10, so I called him to make sure he was still committed, given the weather. He was.

As I was driving into Austin I was thinking to myself that this weather was kind of bad. I was thinking, I like the rain, but is this really worth it? Is this another stupid decision to run in the lightning storm? Will we be the only two fools out there running this morning? And then I pulled up to the the Town Lake Trail (we weren't running there, just meeting there). Sure enough, I saw at least a hundred runners go by. 50 more were getting water under the Mopac bridge. This is Austin, TX, where people love the outdoors and love fitness. This is a city where I don't stick out as the crazy guy that runs all of the time. Gotta love Austin.



PS. Jim and I went on to have a great road run up the Scenic and Mt. Bonnell route. The rain felt good, and conversation was great as usual. It was the first time we had spent on a long road course in months and we confirmed that we prefer the trails. Still, it was a good run. There's no better way to start a weekend.

6 comments:

matt said...

i haven't had a chance to visit your fine city, but you make it sound like a perfect place for your running lifestyle.

you must be getting excited about inks lake, huh? i like the idea of having a chance to push past 50 and explore new territory. i am tossing around the idea of coming out for the bandera 100k in january...what is the weather ususally like at that time of year?

TJ said...

Austin in January is wonderful. It can be cold, maybe into the low 30's at night, but daytime is almost never that cold.

Last year the weather for Bandera was fairly warm. I was wearing short sleeves out there, and I wasn't even running.

That would be cool if you came down. If you do one race in Texas, Bandera is the right one.

brownie said...

Bandera weather is near perfect for a 100K. Will definitely be a treat going from the Colorado winter to the Texas winter!

JohnF said...

TJ, I thought you were doing the inferno run. After my long asphalt run last week, even the easy 10 mile scenic route would not have been good for me this week. I stuck to the trails this weekend. I was on the greenbelt when that rain storm came in- but it was worse driving in it than running in it.

TJ said...

yeah, we were gonna do the inferno run but jim couldn't get the map printed and i don't know the route very well. since i've done the scenic run 1000 times and know the route, we changed our plans...

Anonymous said...

I was also at the greenbelt when it started to rain- it was a great run! Everytime it rains I think I am going to be the only crazy out there, but I am far from alone.

Oh, and I appreciate your comment about the 50M training, I didn't think it was pressure. Deep down I really want to try 50M, but I'm conflicted. It's good to know that the schedule wasn't too crazy if I decide to do it!