Mother Nature Can Be A Bee-Otch!

It's Freescale Marathon weekend in beautiful, sunny and mild Austin, Texas. Wait...scratch that...make it cold, drizzly and freezing rain Austin, Texas. Once again, Mother Nature decided to unleash a mood swing on Austin just in time for Marathon weekend. I didn't run the race, but volunteered. I was supposed to be in charge of vehicles. That includes Elite vans, supply trucks, etc. Unfortunately, there wasn't much for me to do with this job since most vehicles were in the possession of the Operations staff at any given time. No worries. There were plenty of other areas that needed a hand; albeit a freezing hand. The Start time was delayed by 30 minutes because some of the bridges and overpasses were shut down because of the freezing rain. That gave us extra time at the finish line to make sure everything was set up. I jumped in at the VIP area and helped move drinks and decorate tables...hopped over to the volunteer tent to assist with checkin. I became an all-around floater for the day. I even found myself assisting Alan Culpepper's wife Shayne and parents while they waited for him to finish the 1/2 Marathon invitational with time checks. For those that don't know, Alan and his wife are premiere American Distance Runners. Alan finished 4th in Boston last year and was in town running an Invitational Half-Marathon.

Once the race started, events seemed to progress smoothly and I watched the finishers for over an hour to see if I could spot some of my running partners. I saw Gilbert, Jimmy, Patrick, Shannon, Richard, Jason, Erine, Jay and other Gazelles crossing the finish line. As I stood there bundled up with two coats, two pairs of socks and two pairs of pants, I suddenly found myself wishing I was out there with them. There's still no greater feeling than crossing that line. I love watching runners pumping their fists with excitement as they cross the finish. Yay for running!!

After hanging out at the finish for a while, I heard a call on the radio that they needed some volunteers for crowd control. Spectators were blocking the race course in the last 1/2 mile and not giving them enough room to get through. I headed over there to help for a while until the crowds thinned out.

As for me, I'm taking a physical day of much-needed rest, but it's back on the trail tomorrow morning. My nutrition for today has been a little wacky since I was out at the marathon all day.

Nutrition:

5:20am 1/2 Balance Bar
9:00am banana and coffee, 1/2 piece of lemon poppyseed muffin
11:30am turkey on small bun and smoked salmon
3:30pm PBJ on Wheat bread, 1/2 cup veggie chili, fresca
7:45pm Spring Roll, chicken stir fry with Ginger White Wine Sauce and a slew of veggies