Austin Trip Pictures
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
The last week down in Austin was so crazy that I can barely remember everything. Instead, I’ll just tell the story in between what pictures I took over the last 5 days.
Here is the sunset over the Congress Ave bridge. I hung out under the bridge watching the bat colony swarm out as the sunset while chowing down on a burrito. The perfect ending to a long day.
One of my favorite things about Austin was the trail around Lady Bird Lake. There were people constantly out running, biking, walking their dogs or canoeing, kayaking or rowing down the lake. Loved the super athletic vibe all around town. “The fit shall inherit the earth.”
After another hard tempo run around the lake, my doggies were hurting pretty bad and I decided it was time to return back to my ice bath routine. Ice baths in a hotel room poses some special challenges, specifically obtaining said ice. It took at least eight, no lie, trips back and forth to the ice machine to fill up the bath tub. I was tempted to use a garbage can since it could hold at least twice as much ice, and would require half as many sketchy trips back and forth to the ice machine, but I decided to use my better judgment.
Man I sure missed that burning chill of frozen toes. I stuck it out for 5 minutes this time before I had to jump out and dethaw.
Later I met up with one of my Trakkers teammates, Doris, for the first time at a karaoke party. I have a tendency to be really introverted and antisocial sometimes, so the fact that we chatted and tossed back beers into the wee hours of the morning with someone I just met says a lot. She is one awesome chick. Plus, she can totally party harder than me. We even sent some late night tweets to try and get Michael and Amanda Lovato to come join us for a swim the next morning since we knew they were in town.
The next day was beautiful, so I took a stroll off to Barton Springs to check it out as planned. As I walked over, I ran into this HUGE kite fest and remember that Amanda had Tweeted about going there. (Yes, Doris and I turned into total Twitter stalkers). More harassing of the Lovatos continued, but our efforts were fruitless.
Relaxing on the side of Barton Springs. I’m pretty proud to say that I peer pressured Doris into joining me. She was even at a restaurant and chased after the waitress to cancel her order to rush off to join me for a dip. Margaritas can wait. Swimming with teammates in an awesome natural pool on a beautiful day wins every day. 
I’m not sure why, but I think this picture is funny. It looks like this little kid is taunting me saying that he can swim faster than me or something.
And now I’ve made it back to Boston and am trying to get back into my normal routine. Goodbye Austin, you were a fun city, but this New Englander has some Ironman training to get to…
Tags: austin, sxsw, texas | Posted in Life, Triathlon | 3 Comments »
