I'm starting to get behind on blog posts, so this is the last two days in one shot.
I woke up on Thursday with a cold. It wasn't horrible, but I felt tired and weak and I was congested and coughing. I thought I might try to warm-up on the course and see how I felt, but after about an hour, I already knew how I felt. I felt sick. So, I called it then and didn't race. We went to watch the races to see my teammate and another Iowa woman race in my category. They both did really well. My teammate got 6th. Just one away from the podium, but getting in the top 10 in nationals is something to be proud of.
John raced later in the day. My friend A. and her husband met us there and watched the race I was supposed to be in and then we went to lunch together afterward. It's been so great hanging out with both of them while we're here. We headed back to the condo, so John could warm-up and nap and then headed back to the venue for the race. While Coadster really wanted to support John, she also was tired of freezing to death and wanted to have some relaxed time alone to stay home and read the book I let her borrow - Unbroken.
John's race was great. He wasn't feeling super strong, but like the day before, he tried his hardest. I ran into his ex and her boyfriend on the course, and we watched John's race together. John got pulled on his last lap, so I ran to try and find him and give him his jacket before he froze to death. He seemed a little disappointed that he wasn't in better shape, because this was the perfect course for him, but we both have had rough years with injuries, so he was cool about it and we both keep chanting, "Next year!"
After the race we only had a little time before we headed downtown to meet other Iowa bike racers for dinner at Old School on the 6th.
It was a nice meal. The food was great. I fot fish and chips and they served it with malt vinegar for the fries. My favorite.We talked about bike racing until poor Coadster's head was going to explode. I finally told John we could meet some of these guys later to talk about racing, but it was Coadster'slast night in town.
Poor Coadster was laughing with her boyfriend about hanging with old people on vacation and having 2 hour long dinners every night with our friends, instead of getting to go to bars and listen to music. So, I told her we would go and do whatever she wanted tonight.
We were on 6th Street anyway, so we walked around until we saw a place where the music was rocking and the bouncer was dancing outside in front of the joint. I believe it was called the Dirty Rooster. They had a cover band that played very Austin style music. Lot's of Stevie Ray Vaughn and old ZZ Top. They also had a beer pong table set up.
Best of all - Zoltar! We got to hang out for a while and Coady made fun of all the mid-life crisis people standing by us and acting like they were drinking their first shots ever and videotaping each other every 5 seconds. Another group of people came to join them and I said, "I don't know. These guys might be younger..." They took off their hats and they were pretty much all bald, and I had to say, "Nevermind." On the way home I was flipping Coadster shit:
Me: Coadster, since you've always been way too mature, I bet you go through a huge mid-life crisis where you buy a Corvette and start dating 20 year old guys.
Coadster: Awesome. I can't wait!
On Friday, Coadster's last day, we met A. at the LBJ presidential library. A. and Coadster are both history majors and so it is so great to go to places like that with them. Their total knowledge of historical events and political theories is overwhelming in the best way. We were laughing at coadster because anytime there were two people standing next to each other or a wall of the presidents in order of the terms they served, she would say, "They hated each other." And tell us why or examples of their hatred. I told her she should write a gossipy book of people in history who hated each other. It would a best seller.
John and I had friends racing in the 30+ men's category, so we headed to Zilker Park to watch. We left Coadster and A to check out the Willie Nelson exhibit. Coadster really wanted some time to have A. all to herself, so she was really happy. A. brought Coadster all these history books and bought her another one while they were out. As I have mentioned before, A. is a saint and probably the best friend you could ask for.
Our Iowa friend got 4th in his race. He was in 2nd place for most of the race, and could easily have won it, but he crashed at the very end. I know he was a bit disappointed, but no one should feel badly about podiuming in Nationals. It was a VERY exciting race.
We left A. and headed over to Book People. My friend who works there had the day off, so I was sad we didn't see him. I bought Coadster Don Delilo's Libra, because she is a huge JFK fan and I thought it would be an interesting read for her. She bought Bossy Pants, and she's going to let me borrow it when she's done. She has been trying to do some work on her confidence and self-esteem lately, so she has been researching some self-help and empowerment books for 20 something's. I think that is so great of her. I wasn't self-aware enough to even think about doing that until I was in my 30's and I am so much happier and better for having done it. I hope she gets the same results.
We dragged Coadster back to Zilker Park for one last race. Another Iowa guy who won the non-competition race on Wednesday was racing his 45+ category. Coadster got really into cheering him on, so she was happy to watch him race again. He got 4th place as well, and it came down to a sprint again, so the race was really exciting.
From there, we only had a little time before we had to drive Coadster to the airport. We stopped Chuy's for appetizers and a drink. It was really sad to leave Coadster at the airport. Both John and I had such a great week with her. She is one salty broad and I love that about her.
Since we had just had appetizers, we walked over to the brew pub close to our condo, called Uncle Billy's. The beer was okay. Certainly not the best I've had here in Austin, but just fine. Our waiter was a really nice guy too. At one point, John left to make a phone call and he came over and chatted me up, since I was sitting by myself. How nice was that? We decided to split an entree, since we weren't super hungry and we got the BBQ shrimp scampi over cheesy, jalapeno grits with an egg on top of it. It was amazing and left us questioning our decision to split it, instead of each getting our own. All in all, Austin has been great. I couldn't ask for a better vacation in every way, and the best thing is...We still have today and tomorrow.
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