Out and About

We have had simply fabulous weather for the past week in Austin, and I'm proud to admit that I went outside to enjoy it almost every day, even if it wasn't for exercise. Today, Chad and I put on our trail shoes and went to the greenbelt to hike. I offered to start at any trailhead he wanted to, so we both picked the Hill of Life (off of Scottish Woods Dr, if you are not familiar). The sun was out, 75-80 degrees, light breeze, just perfect! We descended the hill and checked out the water, which was flowing well. Plenty of people were out swimming, walking dogs, and kayaking, but it didn't seem overcrowded.

We hiked the flat creekside trail to the left and made it to Scupture Falls. During the hike we were able to see a group of three kayakers go down the series of small waterfalls on the way. We also saw them navigate Sculpture Falls in front of a large crowd of onlookers who were out sunbathing, drinking, swimming, and tossing balls to their dogs. I don't think I have ever seen kayakers do rapids/falls like that live (not on tv). It was really cool!

I'm proud of myself for making it up the HOL without stopping (except for two seconds to pet a couple of dogs). I didn't run it, of course, but I did have a pretty steady pace the whole way. Woohoo! For those of you who don't know what the HOL is, it is a huge hill (not sure how long it is, but I would guess somewhere between .6 and .8 mile) and is quite steep and rocky. We used it week after week all summer long to do hill repeats when we trained for Pikes Peak. I have much respect for the hill and can proudly say that if I wasn't pregnant and if we were both walking, I could probably beat most of you who are reading this up the hill Anyhow, it brought back at least one positive memory of Pikes Peak training, the most miserable summer of training I have ever experienced.