A Home Visit [Austin Marathon Weekend]

What a fantastic weekend for me to visit my hometown!  I had to work for a few hours Friday morning, so Harry and I didn't get into the ATX until late Friday evening.  We enjoyed some airport noms (which I didn't take a picture of, except for this one!  THE BEST ONE!  THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS!) at Chicago Midway and boarded a plane for Texas (by way of Atlanta...ugh).

Also, this post has a bunch of pictures from one event...a run the day before the race.  I sucked at blogging this time, y'all.

The Austin Marathon website said that there was going to be a shakeout run Saturday morning.  I have heard of these runs with Bart Yasso.  I wanted to make sure that he'd be there, so I checked with the man directly.

Brilliant.  I sort of knew that guy was; I've only started a couple of Triathlons from this point!  Harry and I head up to Town Lake (or Ladybird Lake, for those non-Austinites) to meet up with the group for a few very easy miles on the trail.  It was SIMPLY AMAZING out!

Yasso started off the group session with an introduction of himself and a few key important people present, including a couple of representatives from SPIBelt (which I never knew was an Austin-born and raised company!) and Steve Jones, a former marathon world record holder.  Oh.  My.  Gosh. 

We set off at a very, very easy pace.  It was so easy, I got to snap a thousand-million pictures of the gorgeous surroundings.

At the turnaround.  We took a group photo, too!  I'm waiting to see if it gets posted, then I'll update here.  ;)

We wrapped up the run with a short course talk (and several warnings of the weather being a pill on race day) and some laughs.  No matter the situation, Yasso has a story for it.  He's one of those GREAT storytellers...you know, the ones that start speaking and everyone stops talking to listen.  I have witnessed him telling the most intriguing, hilarious stories, and he didn't fail to impress on this particular morning.

Gotta keep it real.  Breakfast tacos from the TC and coffee afterward!  SO yummy!  I managed to inhale my two bacon, egg and cheese breaky tacos before taking a picture of them for you, so here's the bag they came in.  ;)

Harry and I showered up and head out for the Marathon Market (expo), and to mess about in Austin.  We picked up our bibs and spent some time driving around and eventually heading back to the hotel to relax.  Dinner was at Trudy's, where we enjoyed some local brew and our traditional pre-race tacos.

Race recap coming soon!  While you wait, you're more than welcome to read about the course and hills here.  :)