Monday, April 08, 2013

Two weeks in Texas

My flight from Doha landed early in Houston Saturday afternoon and I was on the road to Austin by 7 pm and in Austin by 10. My prerun dinner was a chicken sandwich and fries from Burger King on the road between Houston and Austin with a couple of Newcastles when I got to the hotel for good measure.

Jakeb and I woke up at 5 am and got ready to run. It was really windy and cold (about 45 degrees) when we picked up our race chips. The race started at 7 am and we were completely unprepared for it to be dark. It was a good thing other people around us had headlamps. We were running behind a girl that asked if we wanted to pass her. I said “No we appreciate the light.” She replied “Oh I see, you’re using me for my light. When you win make sure you mention my name.” I said “No chance of that happening. Me winning I mean”.

Jakeb and I ran the whole race together. Our pace was right on and we ran comfortably the whole time. I tripped on the second lap and scrapped up my knee and right hand. Then on the last lap I tripped twice. My left pinky was bleeding pretty bad but we were almost done. My race number has spots of blood on it. I thought that was cool.

We ran the whole race except through the aid stations (2 on each loop) and the last hill. We finished in 3:19:56. The Maze is a great race.

Afterwards I spent most of the rest of the time in Texas working on the house. Andrea and Anna got there on Thursday night and Tori, Austin and Jakeb came on Friday. We were all together for Easter weekend and it was good to have everyone under one roof.

We primed, floated, textured, and painted. We hired a contractor to remove almost 800 square feet of ceramic tile (what a mess). I built a new gate for our cedar fence. We ate good food. Some we cooked and some we ate out. We celebrated Jakeb’s birthday. I got to spend some time with my dad.

It was hard to leave Texas to come back to Singapore. But it helps knowing we have tickets to move home in June.