I ran the dirt trail around LadyBird lake in Austin. I have a really good friend I grew up with who is kind of like the little brother I never had. He called me about a month ago to announce he'd lost 30 pounds since his daugther was born, and has been running since he moved to Austin. He wanted me to come run around his trail because he knew I'd just love it (and Austin). That is one busy trail, in 6 miles we passed like 2 different organized 5K's and a triatholon. It's a gorgeous place for it, almost in the downtown. It was fun to add one more running trail to my list of super-fun places to run. The trail was awesome and I wanted to go forever because it was dirt. But that's when I learned that what my friend and I call 'running' isn't quite the same thing. I figured that since he's really tall we'd keep a good clip but what he's been doing is running 12 m/m , walking a bit, and then "sprinting/striding" every so often. Wow, that was new. So we compromsied by trying to maintain an 11:00 mile and then sprinting every few hundred meters. We followed the run by paddleboarding. The amount of water and greenery, artsy decor, live music, and kitschy restaurants was a great surprize to me. Not like the rest of Texas at all. And the weather was spectacular. I was wearing shorts when I called home to find that my kids were sitting in front of the fireplace watching the snowfall outside the window. I had a fun trip. But it's good to be back. I love my own river too. | 