What Time Did You Start???

11 Mile Run

Thon, Amy and I started our long Saturday run a little earlier than usual. They both had other obligations later in the morning and I wanted to keep my run around 11 miles since I had a tri on Sunday morning. Therefore, Thon and Amy started at 5:30am and came by my house around 5:45am. From there, we started the same route that the rest of the Gazelles were running that morning…Lake Austin Blvd, Scenic, Mt. Bonnell, 2222 and back. At that point, we were ahead of the pack when Coach Bernard drove by with the water trucks. We didn’t get a “Wow—looking good” or “You guys are fast today!” Oh no…We got an exasperated, “What Time Did you start today??” as if it was that incomprehensible that we would be that far ahead of everyone else! We knew we would get passed by people eventually, but why did it have to be on Mt. Bonnell? As we were climbing, a couple of fast, sinewy, 100% lean runners came blasting by us. We knew where there was smoke, there was fire. The rest of the fast folks would be blowing by soon. We passed over Mt. Bonnell and down the other side, past Dry Creek and down another hill. We didn’t go all of the way to 2222 because I was only going 5.5 miles out before turning around. We should’ve just gone to the end because we were only about ½ mile from 2222 before my watch indicated that it was time to retreat.

As we were climbing the hills back towards Mt. Bonnell, the rest of the Gazelles were heading our way. It was fun seeing people as we were on our way back. It really had an “out and back” race feel to it even though we weren’t going fast at all. We got some “Hellos” “Heys” and even “Cheaters” as we were running the opposite direction! Cheaters?? Ouch! Of course it was all in good fun, but the three of us wanted to say, “We’re not cheating damn it. We just happen to have other obligations in life today! It’s not like we’re not running the same f*cking hills everyone else is. We just started a little earlier.” It only got better when we saw Gilbert at the top of Mt. Bonnell. Once again, we received the “What time did you guys start” disbelief. Alright…that’s it. Apparently, we’re just pathetic!

While we didn’t run fast, we did finish strong and I felt good and solid. Apparently, all of the other groups were running the same route. The streets of Austin were PACKED with runners yesterday morning. It’s hard to deny that there is a fitness fever in this town. Literally, hundreds of Gazelles and Rogue Runners were pounding up Scenic and Mt. Bonnell. It truly was an awesome sight to behold and the only thing missing were our race numbers and chips.

While I may not be a fast Gazelle (made obvious today by our coaches with their humorous comments), I’m a Gazelle nonetheless and definitely earned the massage I was receiving later that morning.





Oh yeah…While those may or may not be my abs (ha ha ha ), I made personal history today by doing a group run in just a jog bra for the first time ever. It took about 5 miles just to get over the fear of back fat and belly goo, but I did and by the time the run was over, I was wondering, “what took me so long??” Hell, now I’d run naked if I could!! Well…except for the chafing. Never mind. Jog bras rock