15 days!

Hello, Team Austin! I am emerging from my interviewing haze. It sounds like everyone had an awesome, challenging run last weekend. From here on out THIS IS ALL MENTAL. Your body is ready. So, you have to BELIEVE that you can do this. WOO HOO!!!!

Since I have been so out of touch, I am not sure if there is a plan for tomorrow. The Captain Jack's team is running 1 hour and 45 minutes starting 9am at the Japanese Gardens. I am thinking about joining them. Anyone else in?

Barb

Hey Austin team!

Congratulations on finishing your 20-mile run! What an incredible accomplishment! Just a few weeks of taper left and you'll be at the start line for your marathon. Lee and Melinda, you'll be happy to know that our mantra for cycling class on Sunday was, "At least we're not running 20 miles . . ." When the going got tough, that made us feel a whole lot better. Again, great job to you all! :)

Sarah A.

Awesome Weekend

What a great weekend with friends. I am so impressed with how well everyone ran the 20 miles and the blister comparison afterward. And a very special thanks to Karin, Dennis and Jacob for their great support. I think the 'run' was harder on you guys than it was on us. Thank you all for a great weekend, Austin is going to be great.
We missed those of you who weren't able to make it. I hope you all had great runs too.
I am assuming we are not doing a group run Monday night. How about Thursday night? My schedule is for 6.

Hey Austin Group, just wanted to wish you all the very best on your 20-miler! Wahoo!!!! Enjoy your weekend, run like the wind, be safe and have fun!!!! You are all rock stars and should be uber proud of yourselves!
I heart you all!
Debi

Thurday Run?

Anyone else interested in a group run on Thursday night?

Green Lake Tonight?

Hello. Is anyone planning on running at Green Lake tonight? I was hoping to get in 5 or 6 miles. I miss you guys!!! Crazy times at work these days are limiting my schedule. UGGHH!!

Port Ludlow

Greetings all,

I am back from Phoenix. I tried to bring some nice warm weather back with me but it did not work. The jog with 35,000 others through Phoenix was fun but I missed having the team with me.

So here is the final information for Next Sunday's ride. You are all invited to spend Saturday night. If you come out Saturday night please bring something for dinner and breakfast. Also bring a sleeping bag and towel. There is plenty of room but not having to wash sheets and towels would be helpful.

I will have routes that will give you runs of up to 20 miles. You can start as early as you want. For those of you coming over on Sunday morning please let me know what time you are planning on showing up. I am planning on riding my bike around the course so if you come after I am out on the course I will leave maps at the house.

A lunch/dinner of chili and corn bread will be served afterwords.

Directions to the house are as follows:

Take a ferry (either Bainbridge or Edmonds) or drive around through Tacoma and then drive to the Hood Canal Bridge. Immediately after crossing the bridge turn right on Paradise Bay Road. Drive approximately five miles. At five miles you will crest a hill and see a real estate office on your left. Go to the bottom of the hill and turn right on South Bay Road. We are the 8th house on the right (not including the one being built) 250 south bay lane cell number 818-4755

In case you still need my tnt web site it is : http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/nbhtri09/knyrop

Emily Post - Saturday Run- Leschi 9am

The plan for Saturday (for those not going to Mt Vernon) is to meet at Blu Water Bistro in Leschi at 9am. We will run a nice 12 miler, with a couple of hills. Magically, it is EXACTLY 12 miles…according to google.

More Austin Info

Good Morning,
I recently met a man who lives in Austin. I mentioned a group of us were going to be there soon, so he sent me a list of some places we may be interested in, including a running store.
Have a great day,
Melinda

Regarding your trip to Austin - a few good spots:
Food:
Hula Hut - www.hulahut.com (tex mex - a must in Austin)
Olivia - www.olivia-austin.com (little bit of everything - one of my favorite places)
Salt Lick - www.saltlickbbq.com (bbq)
Chuy's - www.chuys.com (tex mex)
Maudie's - www.maudies.com (tex mex)
Uchi - www.uchiaustin.com (sushi)
Kenichi - www.kenichiaustin.com (sushi)
Bars:
-Anywhere on 6th or 4th Street
-Gingerman - www.gingermanpub.com
Running Stores:
-RunTex - www.runtex.com

Thursday Run

Who is up for a run Thursday evening? My schedule is for six miles, but I think some of you are planning on running eight. I have an appointment in Issaquah that will probably be done around 6.

Whidbey 1/2 marathon

march 29th is the whidbey marathon. I did the half last year and it is a beautiful course. The hotel I stayed at last year has a promo right now for return racers. I was wondering if anyone else is interested in running this year. If so - I am willing to reserve a couple rooms on the night of the 28th at the coupeville inn www.thecoupevilleinn.com/ . It is about a 20 minute drive from the start - but is down by the water. The course is different this year then last - but I am sure it is still fairly hilly.
www.whidbeyislandmarathon.com/

Questions

I assume monday night per the ususal - who's in?
Who wants to plan thursday's run this week? 8 miles? who's planning on being there?
Saturday - who is going to Mt Vernon for the half? wanna carpool?
Saturday - sounds like Emily and Andrew are planning an in town run - who's going?

Austin - Emily was gracious enough to take care of our saturday night pre race dinner. Does anyone have any preference for our sunday night celebration dinner? Do we want to pick a place and make a reservation? Or plan it when we get there - since sunday night - shouldn't be as difficult to find someplace as saturday was.

Emily Post - found two dinner possibilities!

I found two choices for dinner on the 14th and I made reservations for 12 at both. The first is Romeo’s, which is about 1 mile from the hotel. The other is Sagra, which is about 1.7 miles from the hotel. Take a look at the menus and let me know what you think. Also, feel free to opt out of dinner if you would prefer room service or the pre-race pasta dinner. I’ll tally the votes, and then let everyone know the results.

1) Romeos
2) Sagra
3) Count me out

January 25 Port Ludlow

Hello all,

I hope your training is going well. We did our first brick with the TNT group today. Amazingly we stayed dry.

Next weekend I will be in Arizona running the 1/2 marathon. I am sure there is still room if any of you want to join me!!

Since I will be gone next weekend I wanted to check with all of you on details for the 25th. First I need to know how many coming are vegetarians and how many eat meat.

The second question is what time do you want to start? If we base the start time on the schedule for the Edmonds/Kingston Ferry we have the following options for Sunday morning Ferries:

7:10; 8:40; 9:20; 10:10; and 10:45.

If you take this Ferry the crossing is about 30 minutes and then the drive to our house is about 25 minutes so we could start the run at a minimum 1 hour after the scheduled departure of the Ferry.

My recommendation is that you take the 8:40 boat or drive around (takes about 2 hours from Seattle) and arrive at about 9:40 and we start the run at about 10:00.

I look forward to seeing you all on the 25th, or earlier at swim practice on Monday night.

Nookachamps half marathon

The update on the home page for the Nookachamps half marathon says that the race should run without any changes and it's supposed to continue drying out so all looks good. We can register online for $25 until Monday the 12th, then it goes up to $30. This does not include a shirt but sweatshirts and L/S shirts can be purchased for $25 & 15 respectively. The course map does not show an elevation profile but the description says "mostly flat."

Mt. Vernon is about an hour north of downtown Seattle so we'll want to carpool as much as possible if we do decide to go. Race starts at 10 AM so we wouldn't need to leave Seattle until 8-8:15 unless people are registering that morning. 

Thoughts on this? If we vote not to do it, I'm totally cool with that but I may head up on my own. I'd like to do a 'race' to see where I'm at speed wise. If you have an opinion either way, please comment ASAP so we can take advantage of the $25 entry.

www.nookachamps.com

Post from Emily - Some restaurant suggestions from an Austin-ite

My friend’s sister lives in Austin, and gave the following recommendations near our hotel(s)…

Guero's Mexican food- They have an outside bar where you can drink and listen to live music. The food is authentic Mexican and the atmosphere feels like you're in Mexico. It's very lively and fun. This may be the perfect place to go after the race because I'm sure they'll have music and ya'll will feel like you’re at a party. www.guerostacobar.com

Home Slice Pizza - GREAT pizza and atmosphere. I felt like I was in New York or Boston. Lots of fun. It's just across the street from Guero's. www.homeslicepizza.com

Continental Club- One of the best places to see really good live music in Austin. It's been here forever. The music is always good even if you don't know who is playing. No food, it's just a bar. (One time I went there to see a band and Bonnie Raitt came up to play a few songs). It's one of those kind of places where you never know who may show up. Love, love, love the Continental. Also, Botticelli's is right next to it. www.continentalclub.com www.botticellissouthcongress.com

Magnolia Cafe- Now, THIS is an Austin original. It's open 24/7 and they have really good food. Sometimes at the South location the service can be mediocre. I've waited for a table at 2:30 in the morning more than once. Great place to go if you "need" food or are hungover. www.cafemagnolia.com

Speaking of hungover- Zax Pints and Plates is right by ya'lls hotel. They have a bloody mary bar where you can make your own. They have good brunch items and we've had dinner there too. It was also really good. The atmosphere is lively and happy. www.zaxaustin.com

Threadgills - Another Austin Icon. They usually have live music. We went there for Sunday brunch not long ago and heard a really good gospel group. They have true, blue southern comfort food. It's been here forever. Janis Joplin played at the other location, that tells you how long they've been here. www.threadgills.com

Jo's Coffee- This is across the street from Continental. It's just a little walk up coffee bar that makes a really good cup of Jo. Jo's is our local Starbucks... www.joscoffee.com

Also, a local website that has city info is: www.austin360.com

A fun thing to do right across the street from your hotel is to watch the bats fly out from under the Congress Bridge. Just ask the hotel and they can let you know. It's interesting. They fly out at dusk. Anywhere you go they will probably have a little newspaper called the Chronicle. It has everything that's going on in Austin on a weekly basis. You should pick one up and the hotel may even have them. They're free.

Post From Emily - Dinner Reservation Issues

I am having quite a challenge finding a place for 12 for on the Saturday before the marathon. I have had a few restaurants tell me that can’t accommodate that many people, a few say they are booked, and one that doesn’t take reservations for under 15, but they won’t take reservations on Valentines Day. I’ll keep trying but we may start need to think about other options (eg, spliting up, figure it out when we get there, or do the race pasta dinner (which is $30 per person).

Onionman

So registration opened yesturday for onionman. I know many of us have talked about going again. But since Whitman college graduation is the same day - housing is going to be tight. I emailed Susan and she told me we can have the house again - but I need to put down a non refundable deposit to reserve it. So I am trying to find out how many people think they might go this year. if I don't get interest from at least 10 people it won't be worth it to put down a deposit on such a large house. I emailed the victoria google group as well. And I know we have all talked to others that might be interested - so please let me know.
thanks

Saturday 1-10

Well, it looks like most people voted to do 2 loops of Youngs lake. Ya'll really like pain don't cha? Probably the better choice anyways since the cedar river trail is probably flooded at 3-4 spots as it runs right along the edge of the river at several spots.
Shall we set up a self serve water stop at our cars? I can bring an ice chest - that we can put in extra waters, gatorade , energy bars, gu's, IBprofen? And if we do one lap each directions - then we'll at least see each other once out there.
Let's start at 9am. Who's planning on coming? And for those of you who occastionally join us - feel free to come and only run one loop - we won't torture you with two - but would love to have you join us!

thursday night

okay - so do we want to run lake union? OR.... do we want to run Andrews run from the monopoly houses to leshi? OR.... does anyone else have a suggestion? Please let me know if you plan on coming, and vote on where you want to run. And tonight I will total the votes and pick a run.

My new "best" friends

Let me introduce you to my new "best" friends

1) Epsom Salts - soaking aid for tired/sore feet (and toes). you have to use a lot if you want to take a bath - but two cups in a gallon of water is plenty to soak your feet.

2) Emily - for sending me this link to a runner's world article with five ways to lace your running shoes to relieve nagging foot pain. It even includes videos to help me. You all should check it out - it may help you too!

3) Eric - at the balanced athlete in Kent who fit me in new shoes (that feel better as far as I can tell) and helped me with my running form.

Thanks to my new best friends, I no longer want to quit running (which is how I felt on Sat afternoon and Sunday). Hopefully my toe will continue to heal (it feels much better today - I'm no longer wearing sandals in the snow) and I can break in the new shoes and get my training back on track for Austin.

Flights to Austin

Not sure who still needs to book their ticket to Austin, but I just checked Expedia and prices are $260 including taxes. A couple weeks ago they were over $300 so now might be a good time to buy.

Lodging in Austin

Right now we have 2 rooms at the Embassy Suites. One room has a King Bed in the bedroom and a pull out sofa in the suite and other has 2 Double Beds in the Bedroom and a sofa in the suite. These rooms are $188.60 per night including tax, breakfast, and snacks in the afternoon. Emily and Andrew also have a separate room at this hotel.

I did not cancel the original (2) rooms with double beds in them at the Hyatt at $182.85 including tax per night, just in case.

Both hotels are within 1/2 mile of the start.

I believe the following people need a room: Mary Kate, Lee, Lee's sister, Sarah H, Jen, Lauren,Melinda, me and Jeff. Please confirm or let me know if I have left someone out.

Pre-race Pasta

Are people interested in getting together for a pre-race pasta dinner on Saturday, 14 Feb? I think we should make reservations sooner rather than later since it is Valentine’s Day in addition to the thousands o’ people running the marathon… After we get near-accurate headcount, we can send out a few restaurant options and we can take a vote. (We are consulting with Austin locals on Italian restaurants.)

back on track?....

Hopefully all this new snow will melt by monday night ( so tired of the snow - not exactly motivating)
alright then:
Monday night 645 greenlake - speedwork? - to be determined by those who show up - who's planning on being there?

And then who would like to plan the other runs this week?
We need a 6-8 mile run on thrusday night.
And saturday I think we are due for 18 miles?