Frank & Hang Rock it Hard on Race Day!

"To give anything less than the best is to sacrifice the gift."

(Steve Prefontaine)

I had a terrific time at the Rock & Roll Half Marthon. The weather was outstanding, a high of 80 degrees with almost no humidity. Frank and Hang averaged a 9:20 minute per mile pace to finish the 13.1 miles in a PR of 2 hours and 2 minutes. Wooohoooo! Jason and I were good cheerleaders, seeing our runners off at the start, then at the 9 mile mark and finally meeting them at the finish. We enjoyed the after party on the beach for a while, listening to the live music and cooling our feet in the ocean...I played massage therapist and gave Frank's legs a rubdown in an effort to appease his loudly protesting hamstring before walking the 30 blocks back to the hotel. Yes, I got some exercise as well! Jason and I figured out that we walked 7 miles that day. Not bad. But our runners did their half marathon and then a 5k back to the hotel with us. Now that's a long cool down!

Virginia Beach was packed until Labor Day, when everyone cleared out. It was so nice to wake up and see the sunrise over the ocean, hear the surf crashing on the shore. We spent the majority of the weekend eating seafood and chilling out. We did visit the Marine Science Museum for 3 hours, learning about endangered sharks, turtles local to the area and more. They had a nifty harbor seal exhibit and another one with two Kemp's Ridley turtles, two loggerhead turtles and a green sea turtle. They were in a big tank with a huge grouper and other fish. The sharks were interesting, too. Some of the fish in their tank had bite marks.

Frank and I had the layovers from hell on our trip. Luckily, the first one was 3 hours in Orlando, where my sister Sherri joined us with her grandkids. Sherri and I caught up while the kiddos played with Frank. It was so great to see her! Coming home we had 3 hours in Baltimore. Neither of us knows anyone in Baltimore, so we used the time to eat lunch and stretch our legs before cramming ourselves into our seats on the packed flight home. I felt like a squished pretzel by the time we got off the plane in Austin.

The next trip is in October to El Paso...we're going for Elena's christening. Frank is her padrino (godfather), so there's no way I'm missing this trip. Besides, I have a hankering for green chili and cheese tamales from Lupita's, the best tamale place in the world. Mmmmm! I brought back both red and green (red chili and pork/green chili and chicken) tamales in August and shared with my workmates. They had been skeptical of my claim that these are the best in the world but after only a bite they were convinced. Lupita's are fabuloso!

How was your weekend? Anything fun, unusual or exciting in your world? Anyone want to run a half marathon or a full marathon in the spring? Frank will be doing the marathon again. There is more information on training groups at Austin Fit's website and it isn't too late to join.