Sunday’s Austin Marathon was nothing short of fun for me (maybe for some of the runners too!).
I volunteered at the water stop around mile 9, which was sponsored by the Gazelle Foundation. As some of you know, I train with Gilbert’s Gazelles in Austin, Texas, and the Gazelle Foundation is my coach Gilbert Tuhabonye’s organization that raises funds to build water wells in Burundi, Africa, where he is originally from. Many of us woke up extra early to help set up the water stop and eagerly awaited for Gilbert to run by. He ran the marathon as way to raise money for the foundation and to send money to those devastated by the earthquake in Haiti.
Check out this video as we waited in the cold for Gilbert to pass by. FYI it’s pretty shaky, so I’m praying you have no motion sickness. It was pretty cold and holding a Flip Cam steady for five minutes isn’t easy!
Gilbert’s goal was to place in the top three, but he came in a respectable fifth. He said got off to a bad start that morning when his watch died and he forgot to pack a Gu for the run. Energy loss and dehydration set in and he was unable to overtake the runners ahead. Regardless, he ran a 2:34:54 marathon, which is AMAZING and about a million times better than I could ever do. I’m really lucky to have such an awesome coach.
Another Gazelle who had an amazing time was Desiree Ficker, who won the half marathon with a time of 1:17:41. What an inspiration. Her and Kara Goucher are my heroes.
Once water duties slowed down, I headed toward the finish line to see runners complete their marathons. It was around the three-hour mark when I got there and it wasn’t too long before I started seeing Gazelles run through. I helped run in one of my long run buddies Ken Turlington, who qualified for Boston, and Glenn Croft, a UT student and fellow distance-running fanatic who I met through a close friend.
It was fun to volunteer, cheer people on, and made me eager to run my next race. I finally signed up for a half marathon. I’ll be running Moe’s Better Half Marathon in San Marcos, Texas March 7. I haven’t been training much lately because of I was dealing with calf muscle tightness, but I figure I’ll just run it for the sake of doing it and not focus on a PR, but just finishing. The race fee is very inexpensive, so it made sense. I also signed up for the Cap 10K in April to do for fun.
After those races, I decided I’ll just work on staying healthy and then begin training for my first full marathon. I’m not sure what marathon I’ll run yet, but it will likely be close to home. I considered doing Chicago and realized that the whole thing would just be too expensive with race fees, plane ticket and hotel. Plus, I want my family to be there. My mom was unable to see me run my first half last year because she had just been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and was still in the hospital. She doing really well now and I can’t wait to have everyone there. The future is bright and full of running possibilities!
