Skip to main content

Running in the Texas Hill Country

Over the last six weeks or so I've run a mountain trail in Telluride, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and through Times Square in New York City (along with running in Chicago, obviously). So this weekend I took it all the way back to my homeland and ran the quiet county roads of the Texas Hill Country.

I was back in Texas this weekend for my dad's 60th birthday, which we celebrated by going to San Antonio and staying at Hotel Valencia on the River Walk (which I actually always thought was condensed to "Riverwalk" until I just looked it up...). I did some running on the River Walk as well, but it's a pretty tight trail and not exactly ideal for running, even at 7 in the morning with only a few other people out. There were even two bikers, who really had no room at all to pass. But at least they didn't say "on your left" - they just said "good morning."



Obviously, being faithful Texans, we checked out the Alamo. Feel free to be amazed by its glory:
That's not my picture, unfortunately - I stole it from here - because the pictures I took weren't as good as this one... they were more like this (bikers again!):

Anyway, after skipping my scheduled long run on Sunday (due to lack of sleep after seeing Robert Randolph, Jimmie Vaughan and ZZ Top at The Backyard on Saturday night) I went running yesterday morning on Loop 165 (which is off Highway 165 - great naming scheme right?) between Dripping Springs and Blanco.


My preparation for the Grecian hills so far has been pretty lacking. Brynn and I have run a few hilly locations (including Telluride and San Francisco) and spent one workout repeatedly hiking up the stairs in our building, but otherwise we've just been running the flat streets of Chicago... so this was a good chance to get a longer run in with rolling hills involved.

I set out down my parents driveway at 7:30 in the morning - the sun was basically up but still hiding behind the surrounding hills, which made the 45 degrees feel a little colder than it really was (yes, even to a Chicagoan). Their driveway is about a mile and a half of gravelly uneven road, so it was an exciting run going both out and back.

Once I hit 165, the going was a little easier since the road is paved. Also, the sun finally came over the hills and quickly got me warmed up. During my entire run (which ended up being exactly a half marathon, though I was aiming for 12) I only passed four cars (and one of them was my dad heading into town).

I also ran past a big buck, who took off when I was only about 10 feet away from him, a gang of turkeys (that's really what it's called - check it) and one lonely dude walking down the road with a big jacket on. 

It was a pretty slow run (about 9:45 minute/miles) but really relaxing and reminded me (yet again) that running is a relaxing sport and I shouldn't try to make it about speed and PRs and all that. But it's hard not to... especially when you're running in a gigantic pack of people, like we will be for the Hot Chocolate 15K this weekend. Maybe what I need to do when I'm running on Sunday amidst those 1000 other people and I start feeling competitive, is just picture this:


So... that's the last of my destination runs.

And in case you're like me and didn't know this, the new ZZ Top song "I Gotsta Get Paid" (which is way better than you might predict):


Is a remake of this classic gem from DJ DMD, Lil Keke and Fat Pat (also from TX):

So keep this chorus in mind when you're on a long run and need something to think about... incessantly.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Top 7 Chicago Race Shirts (and a Hat) of 2012

Remember when race shirts were pretty much guaranteed to be over-sized white cotton, seemingly designed so that you could wear them once (if you really wanted to show that you ran the race) and then probably never again? One side had the race logo and the other had about 20 sponsors. And the long-sleeve ones had little cuffs at the wrists to make sure you got that nice puffed sleeve look that no one has ever asked for. These days it seems like almost every race is giving out running shirts rather than old-school cotton, and mostly I'm thankful for this change because it seems like they spend more time picking an appropriate color and working on a legitimate design rather than just slapping their logo onto some cotton for you (although I did get a few race shirts this year that went with that style... surprisingly enough, those shirts aren't in my closet anymore). Anyway, pretty much every race includes a shirt. Some are awesome, some are terrible and some are just... shirt...

Chicagoland's First Annual February Fool's Goal Half Marathon/Debacle

A few weeks ago I was looking through the race listings for the month of February and noticed that there are three different races this coming Sunday. All in different cities. As I was trying to decide which one to run I realized that they're all taking place at different times... and then I started thinking... Why not just run all three? I talked to my running homey Antonio and after some discussion about logistics, we realized that based on the timing and location of the races, this would be an insane dash from Chicago to Highland Park to Hoffman Estates to Channahon and back to Chicago, with just enough time to park, get our bibs, run the races and (after carefully stretching, of course) head off to the next one. That's also when we noticed that by a pretty sweet coincidence, the three races just happen to add up to a half marathon.  So, obviously we decided that it had to be done. We registered for all three and created a new race: Chicagoland's First A...

Frozen Gnome 50K (and 10K for the rest of us)

Is this shirt sweet or what? A+ for shirt design This morning I woke up at 5:40, put on several layers of running clothes (tights, shorts, shirt, jacket, socks, waterproof socks, shoes, hat, gloves) and headed out to catch a ride with my friend Matthew to Crystal Lake, Illinois (a city about 75 minutes northwest of Chicago that I had never even heard of until a few weeks ago). We were heading to Veteran Acres Park, a wooded area in Crystal Lake where the McHenry County Ultrarunning Dudes and Dudettes (who call themselves M.U.D.D. for short) were hosting the first annual Frozen Gnome 50K and 10K . Since we're only somewhat crazy runners, we were only tackling the 10K this morning and not going for the entire 30+ miles of trail running. The course promised to be challenging and it was about 25 degrees with a light snow falling, so the closer it got to race time the happier I was to only be running 6.2 miles through the snowy woods, but as we stood around in the heated pavili...