Not Just Blossoms Anymore!

As of May 2, the day after I ran a 45:46 at the Longhorn 10K (close to three minutes faster than last week's Round-Up 10K), here's how the garden looks. Tonight we had a salad made with the arugula from that row closest to the camera.

More Squash Blossoms

As of April 25, here's how things look a day after I got 2nd in my age group at the Texas Round Up 10K.

I'm enjoying running from the house with a destination in mind. Lately it's been to meet my peeps Dan-O, Larry, Bob, Donald, Sarah, and Tom downtown at the Rock do a run with them, then run back to the house. But I decided to go ahead and register for the Round Up and run the approximately 7 miles to the starting area, do the run as hard as I could, then meet Ken and his training group for breakfast.

The Round Up is a tough, hilly 10K course. The weather was just about flawless. A little warm, maybe, because I found myself very happy that there was so much shade along the way.

First Squash Blossom

This is how the garden looks as of April 18. When I got back from yesterday's run I noticed we had our first squash blossom, although it's not open this morning. Everything's a little bit dirty because we had a torrential rain early last night.

During the rainstorm we were out at Emma Long park so Ken, some guys from his ultra group, and the Loop 30K organizers could mark the trail for today's race. Two groups of three course markers headed out in opposite directions to mark the 10K course. We knew rain was coming, so we arranged for Carolyn and me to each drive to the top of the course to meet the markers halfway and drive them back. Minutes after everyone set out, the skies opened up and poured buckets and buckets. I mean, thunder, lighning, wind...holy guacamole! Carolyn and I parked up on the high road and waited out the rain. When it finally stopped we wandered down to the halfway point, just a few yards off the high road. Soon we heard voices. Happy voices! The first group to arrive was Ruth, Alison, and Gabe, and they were soaked and all smiling. Soon after, Ken, David, and Brandon joined us from the opposite direction. They were all smiling, too!

As for my favorite course marker, he was out there at 4:00 on Saturday morning to BEGIN the marking, then again at 6:30 on Saturday evening to FINISH the marking, then again at 4:00 on Sunday morning to DO the run. The group got in two 10K loops before the race itself started at 7:00, then three more loops for a total of 50K, or 30-ish miles. Rogue Austin should be well represented at Leadville!

Garden 2010

Last year the garden was amazing! I had extra motivation because I wanted the place to look good for Ken's graduation party. I wished I had kept up with the progress, so this is my attempt to do it this year. As of April 11, this is how it looks.