We left Fort Worth, stopped at Buc-ee’s for gas and Whataburger for lunch before getting to Austin. For those travelers unfamiliar with the I-35 corridor, you will begin hitting heavy traffic in Round Rock, and will run into many more heavy traffic spots all the way to San Antonio. In Austin, we walked around the capitol grounds. It was a cool, cloudy day, and there were a lot of people enjoying the outdoors. After leaving Austin, we stopped at DQ for blizzards. We were tired by the time we got to our hotel in San Antonio, so we just walked to a restaurant by the hotel for dinner.

The next morning we had breakfast at The Magnolia Pancake Haus, which was delicious. Then, we drove downtown and started our day at the Alamo. Unfortunately, I did not think to check ahead, so, if we wanted to go inside the church, we would have to wait until late afternoon. We decided to do the audio tour, which got us onto the grounds and into the museum.

After the Alamo, we walked down to the River Walk for lunch. The river was green for St. Patrick’s Day.

After lunch, we visited Mission San Jose, which is part of the National Park Service. This has always been my favorite San Antonio Mission. It is much less crowded than the Alamo, and the grounds are bigger. The Rose Window is beautiful! It was a rather warm afternoon, so we decided not to visit any of the other missions. I have had a National Park Passport book for years. Due to COVID, there was not a stamp station, but the web site said a ranger would mail stamps to you, if requested by email. I requested 3, one for me and each kid. A park ranger responded quickly and the stamps arrived soon after we returned home.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at H-E-B to buy drinks and snacks for the hotel room, making this the most-Texan of Texas road trips.

The following morning, we started the day with breakfast at Le Peep Cafe. Then, we explored the Japanese Tea Garden. This is a great free place to visit in San Antonio. The February freeze had damaged a lot of the plants, but they were working on getting the garden back in shape while we were there. I would love to go back and see it sometime. Then, we walked a trail in Brackenridge park. It was a nice walk. It was starting to look like spring, and we found several ducks, including some babies.

That afternoon, we drove out to Natural Bridge Caverns. We bought tickets ahead of time, which I suggest, at least during spring break. We did the Discovery tour, which is about a half mile. The end is rather steep, so it feels like quite a hike to get back up to the surface. This photo was taken at the top of that climb back into the Hall of the Mountain King

The final day of our trip, we drove to Fredericksburg, did some shopping there, and had lunch. It was cold an windy! We drove by Enchanted Rock, hunting for bluebonnets. We saw a few, but were too early to see many.

In March, still not recovered from the slip and fall on the ice, we took a short trip to San Antonio. I’ll probably make a longer post about this trip later. It took weeks to be able to run again. I still hadn’t fully trained for my virtual Cowtown half marathon, but we got an unusually cool morning on May 30, so I decided to go for it, one week after running my virtual Cowtown 5K. So, I completed the Cowtown Challenge! Hannah graduated from high school that same weekend!

In June, we took a vacation to Colorado Springs. I plan to make a post about this later, too.

In July, we visited Hannah’s college for a weekend and attended a family reunion.

So far in August, we have sadly had to say goodbye to our 17-year-old cat, Shadow. We also moved Hannah into her dorm, and Zachary started high school.

Week 3:
It was community week at Camp Gladiator, which means my trainer runs a fit test on Tuesday. Unlike last month, I finished the entire test. I shaved 7 seconds off of my mile time, and improved my times on all of my sets of weighted exercises. That also meant no camps on Thursday or Friday, so I got in my 30-minute run on Thursday after work. It was a little warm, but I was happy with my time. My Saturday run was 5 miles, which was longer than in my original plan, but I’m running a virtual 10K next weekend, so I wanted a longer run this week. I’m still loving my earbuds. They stay in while running, and they’re so comfortable, I can barely feel them.

Earlier this week, I went back and forth a few times trying to decide whether or not to switch my November 10K from in-person to virtual. After confirming in-person, I went back and changed my registration to virtual.

I also bought some new earbuds. I had wanted some true wireless earbuds for a while, and I found the Jabra Elite Active 75t on sale, and the reviews were pretty good, so I decided to take the plunge.

So far, I have only worn them for that 3-mile run and a little around the house and office. They are comfortable. I did wear an over-the-ears headband during my run due to the cold, so I can’t comment on how much, if any, they’re going to move while running.

On the workout front, I started Camp Gladiator 2 years ago, and I just hit my 250th check-in! I have several races coming up, but most will be virtual. I’m about to start planning for my fifth Cowtown half marathon (seventh year in a row running at least one race at Cowtown). Unfortunately, the 2021 event has been moved to May, so I decided to run both my 5k and half marathon virtually. I plan to run my half on the original Cowtown weekend in February, so training will begin at the end of October, and I’m going to keep myself accountable here.

In gear news, I got a Garmin fenix 5 during the time I took off from running. I love it! It replaced my Garmin Forerunner 220 and Fitbit Charge 2. I had been wearing both when I ran, and I found it annoying to wear 2 devices. So far, I have only used the fenix 5 to track runs and Body Pump classes, but I’m looking forward to using it for hiking on our summer vacation. I decided to go with the medium-sized version, the 5, with the sapphire glass. The 5S is a little smaller and geared more toward women, and I considered it, but ultimately liked the look of the 5 better. I figured the 5X would look way too big on my wrist. The fenix 5 uses Connect IQ apps, and I admit I need to do a lot more exploring of those. The battery life has been great so far. I chose to pay a little more for the sapphire glass, because I tend to walk into walls watch face first.

I took day 1 really slow, because I wasn’t sure how my shin was going to handle it. I felt pretty good when I was finished, so I ran my intervals faster on day 2.

Now, I have a confession to make, I only did 2 of the 3 days of week one. I fully intended to get up Saturday morning and do day 3 before taking Zachary to a band fair. However, when I woke up, the temperature at our house was 34 (7 degrees lower than the forecast, by the way) with a “feels like” temp of 22. It was drizzly and windy. I went back to my warm bed. I can deal with those conditions in February, but not in April, when it had been a sunny 87 degrees the previous afternoon.

Zachary selected his instrument for beginner band. His first choice was French horn, but the band director thought he wasn’t matching her pitch as well as she would like, so she encouraged him to go with his second choice, which was tuba.

The week before the relay, I finally read the details. The course would only be open for 4 hours. None of us had been running regularly lately, and I’m a slow runner at the best of times. We decided it would be close, but we should be able to finish under the 4-hour limit. The relay location was the Waterside development in Fort Worth, TX. I hadn’t been to this area of the city previously, but it’s a nice area. The race course was along the Trinity river. Our fastest runner took the first leg and gave us about 12 minutes of cushion. She also informed us the course was 4.7 miles instead of the advertised 4.5. I ran the third leg and was the only one to finish in over an hour, so we finished under the course limit, and we weren’t last! It started out cool and cloudy, but the sun came out during my leg, and it got hot!

If we do it again, we’ll train for it and bring something to sit on while we wait for our team to finish.

This past Saturday, I attempted to run. It turned into more of a walk, but Aggie was excited to go. Saturday afternoon, I biked two loops around the lake for my longest bike ride so far at 14.34 miles (according to MapMyFitness). I ended where we started this time instead of cutting the last loop a little short, which is why this ride is longer.

Now for the race recaps. By Friday, the Saturday morning forecast was looking fairly ominous, with the possibility of thunderstorms and hail. Since my car is still fairly new, I didn’t want to risk the hail, so I decided to park in the museum garage for the 5K. The 10K should have started at 7:00, but was under a weather delay when I arrived. Luckily, we had a break in the weather by 8:30 for the start of the adult’s 5K, so we started on time, and the 10K started with us. It didn’t even rain during the 5K, although I did get my feet a little wet from the puddles. My shin was hurting, so I took it easy, and turned in my slowest ever 5K. After I finished, I went to the start of the kid’s 5K to cheer on a friend and her daughter, but, just as the rain started to pick up, another weather delay was announced. I went back to my car and attempted to leave the garage. After no movement for at least 45 minutes, we finally got someone to direct traffic on the street outside, and I exited the garage about an hour after getting into my car.

Important lessons learned from the 5K: 1) When you get a new phone, be sure to pair your bluetooth headphones before you’re in the corral to start a race. There were so many bluetooth devices nearby, I couldn’t find mine, and ran the entire 5K without music. 2) Do NOT park in the garage at Cowtown!

Sunday morning, the weather was much better. It was chilly, but didn’t feel as cold as it has the past two years. I was not going to deal with the garage again, so I parked where I usually park for Cowtown. Starting out, I felt better than I thought I would. I had already decided to walk all of the hills, because they make my shin hurt worse. My 5K time was only a few seconds slower than yesterday’s 5K. Since I wasn’t running for time, I stopped for a selfie with Elvis.

I started feeling hot by mile 4, and wished I had worn a skirt instead of capri leggings. By the time I got to the 10K point in the Stock Yards, I was still feeling ok. My 10K time was actually faster than my Pumpkin Spice 10K time in November. However, I had been pretty sick for that race, so it’s probably not a fair comparison.

After the Stock Yards, my feet didn’t hurt as bad as usual; those bricks are rough! But, then, I got hungry. Really hungry. I could feel I was starting to fade a little by mile 8. Mile 9 is the dreaded Main Street viaduct. I really have nothing nice to say about this part of the course, except that it always feels like a major accomplishment to get to the top of it.

After I got into downtown, I was spent. Everything was starting to hurt, and I was tired. After the split with the ultra and full marathoners, we turned onto Lancaster, and I met “The Cowboy”. He was running the half in full cowboy gear – long sleeved shirt, vest, jeans, chaps, hat, boots! and carrying a lasso. He was encouraging as we ran near each other, even though he was sweating profusely. After the hill at mile 11, I was really hurting. This is my “the finish line is over there” photo.

I walked most of the rest of the race, only running a few downhills, a very few flat portions, and the last tenth of a mile to the finish. It was, by far, my slowest half, but, I felt good about it. Those last 2.1 miles were a mental battle I won when my body was just about done.

I collected my food, finisher shirt, medals, and challenge brag rag (towel). I took my now-traditional photo in front of the Amon Carter Museum with the downtown skyline, finally made it to my car, and ate my Blue Bell before it could melt.

Cowtown is a great experience! There are so many volunteers that make this race possible. The water stops were all still well-stocked with plenty of volunteers when I went by, even though I was far from the front of the pack. Everything was cleaned up on Main street by the time I drove to work Monday morning. All of the law enforcement officers (FWPD, sheriff’s deputies, and possibly others) keep us safe, and many encourage the runners. The spectators are wonderful, too! I love reading the signs and high-fiving the kids.

What’s next? Since I’m still having shin pain, I will make sure I get some rest to recover. I have a relay with 3 friends in a month, where we’re each running 4.5 miles, so I need to be ready for that. My #1 goal is to build a good base, and not slack on running over the summer.