Marathon Sunday

Today is the Austin Marathon. I have always loved lining the streets to watch the runners and walkers at various stages of the race, but the traffic and the crowds have prevented me from doing it very often. But now I'm one block off South Congress -- the four-mile mark of the race.

Last night's near-miss scared me enough that I would have done my walk early anyway, but with the race's 7AM start time, I didn't have much choice. At about 7:20, Banks and I got to South Congress, and saw one lone runner, with no one else even close, loping south. I'm pretty sure he's the guy who eventually won the race. As we turned north on Congress, the racers multiplied exponentially. I heard both 12,000 and 18,000 bandied about, but it was clear there were thousands and thousands.

I had already decided to give myself an easy walking day, because I wanted to take pictures, and wanted to be at the finish line when the first runner crossed, which would mean at least an hour's wait at 10th and Congress if I took our usual route. So Banks and I took a leisurely stroll, me holding a cup of coffee and taking the opportunity to browse the shop windows. As we got close to the Congress Avenue Bridge, I could see the runners had turned back north and were packing the 1st St. Bridge, so we headed over there and joined the cheering throngs and the incredible gospel group playing right across the street.

Finally we headed to the finish line, where we scoped out a pretty good elevated spot between Congress and Colorado. I thought the winners of these races finished just a few minutes over two hours, but I think today it was closer to the 2:20 mark, so Banks and I had a good long wait of at least 30 minutes. I struck up a conversation with Jill from New Jersey, whose daughter Ashlynn (from New York) was participating in her fifth marathon.

After we cheered on the winner and a few of the also-rans, we headed towards home. I am always learning something new on this journey and today's lesson was this: you are not doing your legs a favor by walking, then stopping, walking some more, then standing in the cold for a long time before resuming walking. I thought I was taking it easy today, but I am more sore than I have been in a long time.

Once again, I took some awesome pictures, but something happened to them, which I think was my trying to add video --  but here's the 4-mile mark, with a few racers trailing the winner, before the throngs caught up, and next to that is Jill.  Jill, I hope you find my blog, and safe travels back to Jersey!  Congrats to Ashlynn for another successful marathon.