Every year several Dallas runners would flock to Austin for this race. Our group would always include at least 15 people either running the full marathon, half, or the 2 person relay. I had ran the half or the relay countless times, but didn't get around to running the full until the year of 2004. I'm glad I did because only a few short years later we all stopped going to Austin. I can't remember why, except possibly because they started changing the course; initially to the disastrous Freescale start in 2006--this is the one with the ice storm and the crazy deer that jumped into the starting corrals and the year that Toby ran his sub-3 hour marathon, all of which is worthy of its own blog entry someday, but I digress. They moved the start again to downtown near the capitol, and as far as I know it has remained largely unchanged since then. I do remember they changed sponsors and the prices jumped really high. Maybe that was the final straw. At any rate I find it strange that I never hear of any local runners heading down there for the event any more.
I liked the original course, a mostly point to point route, with one long out and back in the middle, and a finish into Zilker park near downtown. It had some rolling hills, but overall it was decent terrain. The course was always lively and fun. Every race I ran was an enjoyable one, and the marathon was no exception, so I really don't have much of a story to tell. The race started early--it was still dark when we assembled. Here is the group shot from that year. Doug, Shelly, and I ran the full, and Kathy and Shelly's daughter ran the half, in fact, Kathy ran with me for her entire race, which was a lot of fun.
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| Pre-race nervousness? Not this group! |
We ran a decent first half, around an 8:35 pace, which was reassuring, since my last marathon was the disastrous Boston marathon, where I was reduced to walking. Looking back now it's obvious that the course of Boston combined with lack of downhill training is what did me in, but back then I was still nervous about running another marathon. It was a great relief to get back to "normalcy", and run my usual marathon time again. (3:52 chip time). Years later, after meeting and running with LSP we realized we both ran this race and were within a couple of minutes of each other, back when we didn't know each other! I have scoured all my photos, looking for a shot of her in them to no avail.
Strangely enough it just occurred to me that this was my last Texas marathon! I'm not a repeater, so courses that have remain unchanged are out for sure, and those that have changed haven't changed enough to draw me back. I'm keeping my eye on the fairly new BCS marathon. The only problem is that it's held on the same week-end as the Dallas marathon, which I'm usually involved with one way or another. I enjoyed running the 20 mile distance of the Ft. Worth marathon. Maybe I'll run the whole thing someday, but it's not high on my list. People always ask me why don't I run White Rock-Dallas again and the main reason why is because these are my stomping grounds! I'm afraid I'd be bored to tears. But then again I'd know everybody, ha ha. I don't know, maybe in a few years. I'm having too much fun traveling to new places right now.
As for the Austin marathon...if anyone is up for it I'd love to run the half marathon! But I'm going to have to say NO to the Hula Hut...maybe the Oasis on Lake Travis? Fun times back then...
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