magnolia's

my friend michael and his girlfriend sarah came to town this weekend to run the austin half-marathon yesterday. they got in on friday and organized a get-together at buffalo billiards on 6th street. i had never been down to 6th street before on a regular weekend night (i went on halloween this past year), so i was kind of excited. i got impatient waiting for the bus, so i decided to start walking. a few blocks later i was glad i started walking because i bumped into ivan (one of the guys i rode to alaska with) and he hopped off his bike and started walking with me. i love random encounters with friends!

buffalo billiards was fun. i got to see michael and brian, our other friend from college, and i got to meet raudel, another current austinite and mit alum. apparently raudel and i lived a couple blocks from each other at mit, were the same year in school and had mutual friends. its funny how you can cross lives with other people and yet never meet or in this case meet thousands of miles away, years after your lives probably had a higher probability of crossing paths.

the marathon went well yesterday. i was pacing leya, a friend from hawaii. we finished in ~4:00:20, which was a pr for leya by more than 20 minutes. because we were both running it bandit, her husband gerald set up aid stations for us every 3 miles. it was fun to see their son maika (almost 2) get excited every time we'd run up. the conditions were great for running as it was cool and overcast for most of the day. i only took my long sleeve shirt off for the last 3 miles or so at which point the sun was out.

the one (unappreciated) surprise was the course change. apparently because bill clinton was doing something on campus on sunday they had to re-route the course around campus...so instead of running straight from duval onto san jacinto on the flat ground past the stadium, we had to run up the rather respectable hill on dean keeton...at mile 24.5 of the marathon. ouch. many a groan was heard and we definitely people walking.

i wanted to ride my bike for awhile after the run, but i restrained myself and went shopping instead. after three hours of shopping though, i was tired. but i have new jeans! and they fit! i still haven't quite figured out this energy phenomenon. it happened last year too. i paced my friends and then went out and rode bikes for a few hours with the texas 4000 people. i just felt like i'd done a long training run, not like i'd run a marathon. it actually just woke me up. the point of expressing surpise about this anyways is that i feel normal, and it feels nice to be reminded of that every once in awhile after being so shaken up by the end of last summer. two months to go until boston!

i had lunch today at magnolia cafe on lake austin blvd with michael, sarah and the austin mit posse. although i've ridden and run past the restaurant a bunch of times, i had never eaten there. i think i may have found a new best-place-for-queso in austin!