I used to travel to Austin for work, visiting IBM. Then visiting family, Max, when he was working at IBM Design in Austin. Since we don't travel for work much more, and Max moved to another career path, how about visiting friends?
It felt great to be back albeit only for a weekend, but a busy one, and a hot one with temperatures above 90F, unusual even for Austin according to many locals. On Sunday we even went to a French festival where one of the booths was serving the famous traditional onion soup! That chef acknowledged they had set on a menu weeks before they knew it was going to be so hot! He was also serving samples of a delicious Opera cake, that was much more appropriate. But I digress, let's get back to some running.
On Saturday morning, 19 miles, downtown. On Sunday morning, 10 miles on the Southwest outskirts of Austin where our friends have settled, principally along SH45. And many ounces of sweat lost, that was tough! It didn't help that, in that heat, I ran the first 10 miles at 7:10 min/mile along Agnès and our friends on rental bikes, some good emulation! At least a good 67-mile week overall. And finishing the run with a swim in the natural pool of Barton Springs was quite a treat to cool down!
My only regret was to miss Dick Collins Firetrails this Saturday and the traditional Trailblazer 10K organized by the Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail, a race I ran 13 times already between 2002 and 2018 and which I was excited to get back to after the pandemic hiatus. That will have to wait for next year! Meanwhile, between the busy booth of the Trail Conservancy and good signage reminding us about the importance of keeping creeks healthy in multiple places, I felt some communion with my Stevens Creek community this weekend.
I've some important work milestones this week so let's keep the post short and leverage the many words which a video may be worth, here is the Relive.cc fly-over of my downtown run (click on the link or the screen shot below). Now, it of course can't convey the heat, nor the many runners met on the trail: Austin has runners! And this circuit is really a great place to log a few miles, between outstanding views over the lake and a lot of nature, especially continuing on with the trails along Barton Creek. Just a caveat: these ones have some technical rocky sections!
A couple of interesting ideas gleaned on the way:
1. An invitation to tip the trail!
2. Neighborhood mailbox hubs to optimize/minimize the USPS stops:
'till next time, Austin, Texas and your Longhorns!
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