Bragging rights

Inspite of Thanksgiving and the cold front bringing freezing weather (ok, not 'freezing' but going from the 80s to lower 40s can be considered such), an email communique amongst the Team Zenners (the people to the right are part of the Club Chronicle Challenge, but we are part of a bigger group, Team Zen) mentioned that at least 10 people were going to show up this morning, inspite of Patrick Guy's absence turkey trottin' his way through Dallas.

So when it started raining last night, I hoped it would be done by this morning. HA! No such luck. Still, I dragged my sorry self outa bed by 6:40am to get ready to be down at Auditorium Shores for 8. Not only did it not stop raining, as I was driving towards the Mopac flyover, the rain got worse. Not having seen the newscast, I was hoping for dry weather at the Shores as sometimes, rain can be so local here.

Not today. Today, I found myself in the nice company of Chris (not 'Club Chronicle Chris' but the greater Team Zen 'Chris'). We chatted for a while, hoping to get more company but the only people coming our way were runners, or should I say, ran towards the watercooler corner. Definitely no one from our group!

Chris, being more fit than me, was going to do the same 5K round that the runners did last week. I had my umbrella, my rain gear, my daughter's scarf (can't find mine) and I went for the walkers stretch; a two mile back and forth from the watercoolers to the wooden bridge. As you can imagine, the runners' traffic was very sparse. No shouts of team leaders with a flock of runners following bellowing warningly, " WALKER TO THE RIGHT!"

I felt good that I was there once I started walking. I had missed at least two weeks' worth of working out that I did not even dare to run/jog. Like I keep saying, I will aim for another 5K to run the whole stretch.

For now, the only bragging rights I have is showing up when others (who WERE home in Austin for the holidays!!) were warm and sleeping in bed. Or as Liz puts it; didn't have the monkeyballs to brave the rain.

I'm committed though. At least I ought to be. Achoo!

PS.. are you one of those who never know the distances at the trails? Here is a link that gives a graph with distances from the various locations; http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/parks/trails.htm