austin marathon: prelude
the weekend is finally here. in 9.5 hours, they'll pop the gun for the 15th running of the austin freescale marathon. i'm not running it this year, by design. however, i'll be cheering on my friends tomorrow morning.
i spent the majority of the day at the marathon expo, volunteering at the austin runners club booth or roaming as a marathon information dude (the orange vests were dead sexy... right, kate?). as usual, i had the pleasure of running into many friends during the course of the festivities. the expo was alive with energy.
a highlight of the afternoon was attending a panel discussion consisting of Jeff Galloway, Alan Culpepper, Steve Jones, Doug Kurtis, Keith Brantly and Dick Beardsley. i was pleased to see that several NI folk to whom i evangelized this panel actually came for it. given that i was still on info dude duties, i actually missed ~70% of the talk itself. however, i was able to meet beardsley, jones and culpepper after the panel concluded. by coincidence, a friend of mine here in town (shellie faught) actually went to school with culpepper out in west texas. "wow, that's a blast from the past! how's she doing?" was culpepper's response when i dropped her name. i wished him well for tomorrow and boston.
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the weather for tomorrow stands as being curious. it's currently 28 degrees out in my backyard, and forecasts are calling for a chance of drizzle through the night. for those of you not familiar with basic chemistry, that implies that there is a probability of ice on the roads (namely, bridges and overpasses) tomorrow. winds will be coming from the north, with the high tomorrow not getting above 45 degrees.
the start temp is on the cold side of perfect, which is better than the warm side of perfect in my opinion. the course runs primarily south, meaning any northerly winds will be at the runners' backs for ~80% of the race. which is pretty bitchin', in my opinion. however, the rain, the rain... i can only hope that it stays mostly at bay, and most importantly, doesn't screw up the roads. i have several friends shooting for major goals, and i don't want to see the chance of weather fouls things up. time will tell.
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