Beautiful day in Austin, TX, with 6:00 AM temp of 40 degrees. I met Karen H at RunTex in the Gateway shopping center about 6:00 AM. We went out and got in a little over 4 miles of easy running prior to the start of the 3M half marathon, then we ran the 3M as bandits but we carried our own drinks so we were not in the way at the aid stations to those who had paid their race fee of $60. After we finished the 13.1 miles of the 3M race we ran another 4.5 miles on down to the Townlake trail and then ran up to Mopac at Austin HS tennis courts and found Lynn. Then we all went to breakfast at Maudie's on LaMar. What a great day.
Prior to the start of the race we saw Ethan and during the race we saw Jim and Lisa (Karen F's friends) and ran with them a couple of miles and talked about watching the movie, Spirit of the Marathon, and other running stuff like the Oyster Adventure Race I did with Karen F and Karen H last October and about the Ironman race Karen H did in Idaho last June and the Muddy Buddy race that Karen F and I have done 4 times. You can never run out of things to talk about when you are running. When the sun came up so did the temperature and by the end of our run it was probably in the mid 60's with beautiful sunshine and a slight breeze, probably the best running weather we have had so far this year.
This 21.6 miles was very easy and smooth. We targeted just running an easy 20 mile training run pace but we were passing up race runners the entire 13.1 miles of the race. Just too much fun and zero soreness or stiffness even now after completing the 21.6 miles. We got in the extra mileage because the race finished over on the east end of Austin near the University of Texas football stadium area, so we had the longer distance to run to get back down to the Townlake trail and back up to Mopac.
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