Giving back

I can’t believe it’s taken me  a week to post about the 2013 Austin Marathon.  Like always, I volunteered, no running.  I’ve never run Austin, don’t know I ever plan to.  Every year when it’s all said and done, I FEEL like i’ve run one, no joke.  Long hours, no real breaks, and standing all weekend long.  But every bit of it is fun and rewarding.

This is when the expo first opened as people started flooding in.  20,000 runners over 2 days.

photo 5

I love the energy of the expo and talking to all of the runners.  This year I was t-shirt exchange lead in packet pickup.  I had AWESOME volunteers.  Mostly college kids (had the UT Lasso’s, premed fraternity, and a few other groups).  And I made a new friend from San Diego (him and his buddies came from California with a friend who was running).  Hi Larry!photo 4

The most interesting and humbling experience?  Majority of the race packets were put together by visually impaired men and women.  I wasn’t sure how that was going to work out, but it did.

I overheard 2 of the girls from UT’s LASSO group saying how awesome I was (I was behind the curtain).  Woohoo, the kiddos liked me :-) photo 3

My buddy Megan is the packet pick-up captain and she does a damn good job at it.  I recruited AK this year to join the leaders team.2013 marathon expo, ak mk mb

I will certainly be back next year!  I can’t wait!

Austin Marathon weekend

This past weekend was one of my “give back events.”  What the Austin Marathon means to me is volunteering.  I volunteer every year and i’ve never run the event.  I love being involved on the volunteering side, just like for Decker Half Marathon.

The slogan may have been eat, run, sleep, repeat.  But this weekend was volunteer, volunteer, volunteer.  I went downtown on Friday and stayed until late Saturday.  I had a great time and loved it, but man, not used to standing so much.  I felt like i’d run a marathon after the first 2 days of standing for 12 hour days.

This was the first year I’ve done packet pick-up which was incredibly fun and fast paced (so much so, that I never even got to look at the expo, which I heard was awesome).  Plus I was a team lead, which was super cool, thanks Megan! (here she is assigning our first crew). 

My job for the weekend

The masses in for their packets.  Friday was pretty steady, Saturday was SLAMMED! I was one of 2 team leads for the half marathon pick-up. 

I was more than exhausted after the weekend, but well worth it!  Now on to Waco for work for most of the week!

Away in Aggieland

MIA due to being in College Station all week for work.  It was good to get away and work outside of the office.  Plus I love College Station.  And I got to bond with my team, which was probably the best part!

Maybe I am weird, but when I am out of my regular routine, I write down what I need to accomplish and count backwards to see what time I really need to get moving from the bed or computer.

I got to run through town once when I was there.  Unfortunately it had to be in the AM and it was dark and raining.  I wish i’d have an evening free to tour campus on foot.   Hoping to talk Dan into a SEC game this year and we can make a roadtrip ;-)

Nothing too exciting food wise.  Fajitas at Papa Perez were really good, although I was disappointed there weren’t really sides with them that i’d eat (we went there for Valentine’s night).  Lunch at Ozona on Wednesday was great, I had salmon tacos.  I loved that kabobs were a side option (I got 2).  Everyone else at the table was jealous over my plate, lol!  I’ve never thought about making salmon tacos, but it worked.  Plus their cilantro vinaigrette was very tasty on both the fish and the kabobs.

I’m glad to be back, but now i’m off to spend all weekend downtown volunteering at the Austin Marathon.  Needless to say, there probably won’t be blog posts until Sunday night, i’ll be too busy and not taking my computer! :-)  First stop though, Endocrinology appointment.

Happy Friday!  Good luck to all running this weekend!  I’ve never run Austin, because I LOVE volunteering for it so much!

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