Where are the Austin porta-potties?

I am soooooooooo far behind on blogging and reading everyone else's blogs because I'm getting settled into my new Austin digs.

But, I have found time to run: Saturday (9 miles with Team Rogue), Monday (7 miles - was supposed to be 6, but I got lost) and this morning around Town Lake (7 miles).

I will say this about Austin: There are tons of runners and they come in all speeds and sizes. On Saturday, about 50 or more met at the Team Rogue training center/shoe store off 5th Street and I-35 for a 6 a.m. run. I ended up running with these two guys, Cameron and Jason. They talked the whole way. I just concentrated on breathing. Finally, they asked me what marathon I was training for and what my time goal was.

"Philly or San Antonio," I said. "And I hope to qualify for Boston. A 3:20"

I must have sounded so proud. Then I asked them what there marathon goals were.

Both were going to run Portland. And both were trying for sub 3 hour marathons.

Just hearing someone say a "sub 3 hour marathon" nearly took my breath away. I kind of fell back a few steps and ran behind them. Then I hear Cameron telling Jason that he was not going to allow himself to run any faster than 7:30 miles while base-building.

Allow himself? Yeah, these guys are pretty fast.

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The reason I got lost on Monday's run was comical. I met more Team Rogue runners at 6 a.m. on I-35 and Manor and the running coach gave us directions for this new route we were taking. I was kind of glad we were not running on the trails because my brand new Brooks Adrenalines are just filthy. Problem is, the turn by turn directions didn't tell you that sometimes there would not be street signs, or that E. 32nd street would turn into another street that was not listed on the directions.

And then, my bowels kept trying to explode. The day before I had a nice Italian dinner at Vespaio's (plenty of cheeses and wines with my meal) and at about 6:30 Monday morning, I thought I was going to go right in my pants. (See, when I ran in Fort Worth, I knew exactly where the port-a-potties were. In Austin, I'm going to have to scout on some places when I don't run on Town Lake.)

Somehow Monday, I didnt have to turn in some alley, though every time I had to stop and read the directions to figure out where I was going, the urge to go came back stronger and stronger.

The route was supposed to be 6 miles, but I took so many wrong turns that I wound up doing 7.

Oh well, at least I got to see what the Northeast side of Austin looked like.