It was time to return to Austin and re-kindle my love affair. The Austin Marathon was two weeks after my Melbourne Florida Marathon and two weeks before my New Orleans Marathon…seemed like the perfect time to go! With that race schedule, I planned on enjoying these runs more than chasing a PR. I was still ailing from a nagging knee injury so I hardly ran (about 50 miles total) between the Melbourne race and the Austin race.
These trips really have become less about the running and more about the cities. So, let’s start with the beer. It’s amazing how easily we take for granted the bounty of good beer brewed in the Midwest. In Texas, the laws aren’t in favor of the little guy so unfortunately, you won’t be seeing the likes of Freetail Brewing http://www.freetailbrewing.com/ outside of the San Antonio area anytime soon. It’s a shame, because that was a fantastic brewpub!
After a sampling of all they had and a tour, we filled a growler and headed to the largest purveyor of barbeque in all of Texas. The Salt Lick http://www.saltlickbbq.com/ is a sight to be seen. The setting is in the Hill Country on a sprawling vineyard property. The grounds seat about 500 people and I don’t get the impression that the wait is ever less than 45 minutes. This isn’t really a problem considering it’s a BYOB. You’ll get the sensation that you’re attending your very, very extended family reunion and your great uncle makes the best damned barbeque in the state. Enjoy!
This brings us to the night before the race with bellies full of barbeque and the equivalent of eight pints of beer. She’s driving, so most of that beer was uncomfortably residing in me. Obviously, I don’t get too regimented with pre-race rituals but even for me, this was a little overboard. Suffice it to say, I may have fared better had I just gone the pasta route.
The race was a fairly beautiful course, winding through the many eclectic neighborhoods of Austin from the Capitol to South Austin’s art district through tree-lined neighborhood streets and around the University campus. I had been warned of the hills of this race but they were a welcomed challenge. Throughout much of the course, I couldn’t help but think, “wow, they sure do have a lot of food trucks!”. That’s no lie. I’ve yet to visit a city that prefers their food prepared from a lunch wagon over all other forms quite like Austin does. In fact, several trucks lined the finish line of the course as we were apprised to run with cash in the event we craved a taco with our finisher’s medal.
Meat pains aside, I ran a fairly consistent pace and finished in 2:59. The weather was a perfect 60F and partly sunny. I ran several miles with my tattooed doppelganger which I’m sure gave rise to spectators questioning whether or not the circus was in town. If anything, that’s one trend I’ve noticed more of in the pack of runners finishing near the top 1% - more tattoos.
Whenever possible, we prefer to book our stays at small bed & breakfasts. After a one night stay at a B&B in San Antonio, we found The Adams House in Austin. It’s owned by a young couple entrenched in the local art/music scene. He’s a drummer so, naturally, we had to stay here! http://www.theadamshouse.com/. Eric provided us with some great neighborhoods and bands to see while in town. The most interesting place we visited was a dive bar called Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon http://www.yelp.com/biz/ginnys-little-longhorn-saloon-austin where we spent an afternoon taking in the un-apologetic old school honky-tonk sounds of regular Dale Watson http://www.theconnextion.com/dalewatson/dalewatson_index.cfm?ArtistID=439 and drinking Lone Stars in a parking lot while others bet on chicken-shit-bingo near the front of the bar; not a bad way to spend a post-marathon afternoon. Just as my stomach was beginning to feel better, we embarked on one last barbeque adventure at Stubb’s http://stubbsaustin.com/ .
We spent the following afternoon shopping the kitschy storefronts of South Austin for the perfect pair of Wranglers for these ol’ boots o’ mine. Looks like I brought home a little Texas after all.
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