Never say Never……

On February 24, 2016 By DGThomaIn Exercise, Family, Friends, WritingLeave a comment

Everyone is guilty of saying I will never… I’ve begun many sentences with it myself.

A few of my favorites are:

“I will never wear tennis shoes with a dress just to get in a walk during my work day.” This one I do often!
“I will never be one of those parents/grandparents who…, well lots of things.” There are too many of these to list.
And, “I will never run 13.1 miles!” This time I don’t mind being proven wrong.

In 2001, my husband signed up for and trained for the 3M half marathon. I thought he was crazy to even consider it, but I knew he would finish it once he’d committed.

He trained for several months and never missed a scheduled run. We lived in the Texas panhandle and rain, sleet or snow never kept him from completing a training run. He is much more disciplined than me. When we met, I was a runner, and he a cyclist. I jogged occasional laps on the track and around the neighborhood; he rode for 60 miles on the weekend. I learned to ride but rode only once or twice a year. He fell in love with running.

So before sunrise early February 4, 2001, I dropped my husband at the start line. I ate breakfast and headed downtown to watch him finish. Runners crossed the finish line celebrating their victories. I turned to my friend and vowed, “I could never run 13 miles and why would anyone want to run that far?”

Fifteen years later, having completed 15 half marathons and 17 full marathons, I stood in the predawn chill ready to run the 3M half marathon. As I waited along with 5400+ runners, I shivered in the cool morning breeze and remembered that declaration. I could never have envisioned myself running more than 2-3 miles at a time back then.

On this day, I was running with my good friend, Shirley and our goal was simply to finish. Shirley has lost over one hundred pounds and is determined to keep it off. She ran her first half marathon in San Antonio in December 2015 and as we crossed the finish line, she asked, “When’s the next one?” So here we are lining up to make the trek from North Austin to the State Capitol downtown. Shirley trained for the run using the run/walk method. In San Antonio, we ran one minute and walked one minute throughout the course. Our plan today was to do the same.

When we crossed the start line, we were both running strong. As the alarm sounded for our walk break, Shirley said, “I’m feeling good. I want to keep going.” So we kept going. Eleven minutes later I looked up and saw the first mile sign. Pointing to the sign I asked, “Have you ever run a mile without a break?”

When she answered no, I replied, “Well now you have!” Both our eyes were glistening when we passed the one-mile mark.

At mile 7, we waited in line for a “porta potty”. That stop cost us 10 minutes but sometimes you have to listen to mother nature!

As we ran through the University of Texas I was in front of Shirley. Suddenly, I heard a group of runners singing. Shirley was talking to a nearby runner and mentioned it was her birthday the next day. A spontaneous rendition of Happy Birthday rang out as we passed by the UT stadium.

We completed the course and shaved 10 minutes off our San Antonio time. Even with the delay of our bathroom break we were faster. Amazing!

First thing Monday morning Shirley was standing at my desk with a handful of ½ marathon flyers, asking “Which one is next?”

So while we decide on the next one, we’ve already signed up for 3M 2017!

Commuting in Central Texas

On January 27, 2016 By DGThomaIn Travel, Writing1 Comment

I may be wrong, but I don’t think we have mass transportation figured out in Central Texas. We love our SUV’s and Ford F150 pickup trucks. They line our highways and tollways, with only a few random “Smart” cars sprinkled in like the toy prize in a Cracker Jacks box.

Austin, TX has a light rail system but it doesn’t run to my suburban area. A commuter bus service picks up and drops off near my home. I’ve often thought I might enjoy catching the bus into town. I envisioned writing or reading a book for the 1 to 1 ½ trip to the office. I was unsure of the bus route, so didn’t know if it would be convenient.

I never got around to checking the route or the schedule but each time I saw the commuter bus moving through traffic, I remembered I wanted to find out more.

So when our vehicle decided to stop running, mid-commute on Friday, we checked it into the auto hospital and decided it was time to take the commuter bus. It’s odd. When we travel to other cities, we ride buses, subways, trains and take taxis. It’s never an issue and we are completely comfortable. But something about having to catch the last bus home became worrisome. The published route and fares were listed on the website, but there were few specifics. The bus stop was a short ¾ mile from my office and less than ¼ mile from my husband’s office. The last bus left Austin at 6:20 PM. We gave ourselves over an hour to get to the stop so we had have plenty of time. We were unsure if the bus accepted cash or tokens.

A quick call to the Capitol Metro office and answered my questions. The representative assured me payment could be cash as long as the change was exact and the total fare was 4.75 per person. The website listed the price as 3.50, so I was glad I’d checked.

My husband and I arrived at the stop by 5:30 PM, well before departure. We bought a bottle of water from a downtown grocer so we would have exact change. A Starbucks sat on one corner and a Which Wich on the opposite; but we sat on a bench outside, around the corner from the bus stop to watch for the 990 commuter to arrive. Dusk settled as professional workers heading home gave way to Austin night life spilling across the sidewalk.

A few minutes after 6:00 PM, we relocated to the stop in hopes our bus might arrive early. It was a bit nippy but not too uncomfortable as we waited. After thirty minutes, a plethora of city buses lumbered past but no 990 commuter bus among them.

Around 6:40 PM our bus finally arrived. Four of us waited to board by the time it slowed and stopped. On board we began inserting dollars into the machine. The driver stopped us when we had deposited 7.00 dollars. The fare really was only 3.50 each. What a nice surprise!

We stopped four times before we reached our destination. The bus picked up and dropped off a few passengers before our journey ended. Commuting on the bus wasn’t quite what I had pictured. My fantasy, of a slow lumbering train ride, soft comfortable seats with low lighting wasn’t completely accurate. The ride was nice, if a little bumpy. We arrived in a reasonable time frame and it was comfortable. Would I ride it again? Yes…. But not every day just yet!

A Bit of Whimsy on North Lamar

On September 9, 2015 By DGThomaIn Humor/Light Hearted, News and Reviews, WritingLeave a comment

Driving to work during early morning traffic in Austin, TX is seldom boring. You never know which route to take until you actually approach the outskirts of town. As many people who live in the surrounding area, we have a fairly substantial commute, depending upon the traffic.

Our normal commute is about an hour, but it can range more or less depending upon the circumstances. I’m often a passenger rather than driver and find myself peering at any changes happening outside my window.

If the interstate is backed up, which is the norm; we drive to North Lamar and head into downtown. Recently we noticed that someone had put skirts on several of the light poles along Lamar. That’s really not terribly unusual for Austin. Austin is filled with a lot of incredibly talented and bright people but for some reason I was intrigued by those whimsical skirts wrapped around the light poles. At first there were only a couple of the skirts near Shoal Creek along Lamar. I began to watch with interest each day as we drove down Lamar, looking for a new skirt blowing in the breeze.

I couldn’t help myself; I started to imagine the shoemaker and the elves. I wondered what sort of elves were showing up overnight to drape fabric around the naked light poles parading down the sidewalk.

It was a couple of months ago the skirts started appearing. I thought about taking pictures, but I always spotted them while we were driving past. It was never an opportune photo op.

This morning as we were driving by I noticed a new skirt had appeared on North Lamar. I determined to take a few pictures on my way to work today, but as we drove along I found that the original skirts were all missing!

Regretting that I hadn’t stopped to count the skirts previously, I was only able to find two of the skirted poles remaining.

As we left work, I went in search of more skirts to see if I could find anymore. The two were all that remained. Circling around I finally managed to take a picture. It was a lot of fun watching for new skirts to appear and I will miss the adventure.

I don’t know who is responsible for the entertainment I enjoyed, but I do thank them. Tomorrow I will be in search of the next entertaining project, but whatever it is, it will have big skirts to fill.

Finding the Sunshine

On September 2, 2015 By DGThomaIn Exercise, Food, Gardening, Humor/Light Hearted, WritingLeave a comment

I’ve been so busy and absentminded lately! Today I was particularly scattered. I began the day with my supervisor standing in the door of my office with a major problem. I spent the first half hour of my day researching the details of his issue only to find out everything was fine and there really wasn’t a problem after all.

When I finally got to my computer, I checked my calendar for meetings. The first one was scheduled for 10:00 AM with another one scheduled immediately afterward. I had just enough time to get a few things out-of-the-way first.

At 10:00 AM I headed off to the meeting, stopping by to grab my staff. They informed me I had been looking at tomorrow’s calendar. The rest of the morning, I kept forgetting it was Wednesday and tackling Thursday’s tasks.

I was sure I was going to forget to pick up my vegetables from the Farm to Work program which is delivered on Wednesday afternoon. The pickup time had changed from 2:30 PM to 1:45 PM. Finally I set my alarm for 1:45 PM and got back to work. I kept thinking about the pickup time and watching the clock until finally the alarm went off. I realized I had forgotten to bring a bag for the vegetables!

Digging through my office, I finally found a bag with some books in it. Dumping the books out, I rushed down three flights of stairs and hurried to the courtyard to pick up my vegetables. I had been so busy I had only left my desk one time to get a glass of water. Walking through the fresh air and sunshine was revitalizing! When I rounded the corner of the building at 1:46 PM, no one was waiting, no vegetables were lined up for collecting and I didn’t see the farm truck parked in its spot. I took a seat at the picnic table and enjoyed the sunshine. After five minutes or so I began to wonder if maybe I was confused about what day it was, although I was pretty sure I had already established it was really Wednesday.

Reluctantly I left the warm sunshine and headed back up the stairs to re-check my email. When I opened my email, I saw that at 1:15 PM I had received a message about the vegetables arriving early. The vegetables were in the Wellness office. I headed back down the stairs, back into the sunshine in search of vegetables.

As I filled my bag with the lovely fresh smell of cucumbers, sweet potatoes, jalapeno, squash and more I was smiling.

I didn’t forget my vegetables, I got more exercise by doing the stairs twice and I had some delicious vegetables to use as weights on the way back to my office.

Even the view outside my window looking at downtown Austin, TX looked just a little bit brighter.

Toto we’re not in Austin anymore…..

On February 18, 2015 By DGThomaIn Exercise, Friends, Humor/Light HeartedLeave a comment

I’m still playing catch-up on my training for the Zooma half marathon. I am slowly building up both time and distance as the date moves closer. Tonight we ran through downtown Austin.

We started at the Treaty Oak on Baylor and ran down 6^th street toward the interstate. At the interstate we looped around and started down 5^th heading to our car. As we ran we wove our way through tourists, 5:00 o’clock workers heading home, valets parking cars, homeless people and early evening patrons heading into one of the many bars that pepper 6^th street.

We discovered a sign for the best hamburger in Austin, one that said they had the best dumplings in Austin and discovered an entirely different town alive with entertainment.

We drive these roads every day, but everything changes when you’re on the ground at 5:00 PM on 6^th street in Austin. We may not be setting any speed or distance records but we did have a lot of fun!

See you on the trails!