Past Memories

Growing up I always wanted to mow the lawn, but my father never let me. Turns out fathers really do know best. Since my sister went to college yesterday and since it's been crazy raining here, the grass just keeps growing and thus needs to be cut... and of course, who gets to do it? Yours truly. Yours truly also manages to hit a small tree stump and jack up the mower blades so that they need to be replaced and even when replaced, the lawnmower may not work. Figures. This does not bode well since I am renting a house from a professor this fall and will have to mow the lawn... right. However, if my family's lawnmower is actually broken, at least the environment may thank me. Every time I started the mower today it blew out a large puff of black smoke. Disgusting.

And since I am returning to school on Friday to begin the last chapter of this part of my life, figure it is time to recap my favorite memories from the past seven months I spent in Austin. As chronologically as possible, I present my list:

January was my first month in Texas this year. I did several big running mileage weeks on Town Lake and up to Mount Bonnell. I got to see the view from the top for the first time by running there from my apartment. It was pretty awesome. I also ran the 3M Half Marathon and got lots of free stuff. Not my best effort though. February I got to meet my friend Leila who turned out to be super awesome and very similiar to me. She is one of the few people who understands the need to be active and that rest does not cut it. Her and two other friends along with myself all decided to do the Danskin Triathlon in June. March a bunch of us did a 60 mile ride to Elgin, just north east of Austin. That was fun since I had endurance and strength and most others did not. So for once I was faster than the guys! Later this month though I bonked and that was no good at all. So I had to rethink my training habits. In April I joined the master's swim group at the Hills and met a lot of amazing people. It was fun to swim with them every Tuesday and Thursday (well I swam almost everyday) and my stroke improved and I really got pushed. These women are the reason I almost stayed in Austin. That and the women in the locker room in the morning who I chat with. May brought the beginning of tri season. Training was going really smoothly and CapTex went well enough. I think this month I also did my first Bicycle Sport Shop Sunday ride with Leila and other people and that was really fun. I also ended this month with the Real Ale Ride which I started alone but then met some cool people along the way. It was definitely a good, challenging ride. June held both the Danskin Triathlon and Buffalo Springs. At Danskin I got 2nd in my age group and 42nd overall and decided I really like going all out in sprint races. I also decided I really like the Decker Lake courses, despite the fact that the lake itself is a bathtub. Buffalo Springs was also a good experience, despite the weather. I felt strong for most of the race and had a really good run. Also the day before Danskin George and I did a 71 mile route from his house and on the Longhorn 70.3 route and the weekend before Buffalo Springs Leila and I did the BSS 50 mile route. I think all those rides contributed to my success at Buffalo Springs. July was rowing and injury. Karla and I signed up for rowing lessons and that was awesome. I'm glad I got to go back to the sport that got me into all this in the first place. It also turned out to be an injury savior since once I was able to rebend my knee rowing was one of the two things I could do that was not painful. I am also glad I got to know K better since we are also similiar and she is another active person. I think before I met these people the only ones I had known to be as active as me were the ones on the Internet forums. I also did the Couples Tri before I banged up my knee and Casey and I placed 6th in our division and I actually was faster than him! End of July brought decision time and I took a job in northern California instead of choosing the safe route in Austin. And August brought the end of the part of my early life spent in Austin. More rowing and swimming and dinner with friends.

I'm glad I got the chance to record all this. My memory seems to be getting really bad. I thought I dug up a binder for class yesterday and now I can't remember what happened to it... wonderful.