What do you get when you smother delicious hot dogs with delicious homemade chili? Delicious homemade chili dogs. Add in some dry humor, a genuinely nice guy, and an unexpected, irrationally good cup of coffee and you have yourself Dogellos. A nondescript trailer near UT campus in the parking lot of a bike shop, Dogellos is the only dedicated chili dog trailer in Austin.
March 1st marks Day 1. I’m joining Ev (who has been at it for a little over a week) to go gluten free. Since following an impressively successful amateur triathlete, and reading a few recent anecdotal articles, we decided it would be worth our while to give it a try. The idea is that cutting out gluten from my diet will provide benefits to all areas of a Mike’s life.
At this point I’m skeptical of any new trucks hitting the saturated Austin trailer scene. What can [insert new truck name] make that isn’t already being cranked out at the highest level? With so many trucks, trailers, and carts, only the best will make it. So I was curious when I heard a new truck was making its debut, backed by the pedigree of some very successful, established trailer owners (can you say Peached Tortilla?). I introduce to you, Yumé Burger.
Early in February I gave a preview of the team tryouts to earn a spot on the National Instruments Corporate Challenge team for the Capitol 10K. Well race day finally arrived. With seven people trying out for four spots, it was sure to be competitive. I had done my research and knew who would beat me and who I could out run. My research did not leave me feeling very reassured.
The biggest difference, as Colin pointed out, is that for the tryouts, I’m racing against people and not against the clock. In all my other races, it’s always me versus the clock. That completely changes the strategy. Time is steady. People are not. In any case, the group jogged 2 miles to the track as a warm up. We got a brief review of the rules from MC Rich, took a group photo, and got lined up.
The Serious Seven: Me, Misha, Ryan, Joel, Justin, Mike, Paul
From the start the group broke into three factions: 3 in the lead pack, 2 in the middle, and 2 falling behind. I was in the “2 in the middle” group, which meant only one of us would be getting a spot on the team. Unfortunately for me I was hanging with Misha, who is known for having a lightning fast kick (aka speed burst at the end). After the first lap, the lead group had a solid gap ahead of Misha and me. I decided in the second lap I needed to try to put some space between Misha and me or I could be in serious trouble later.
By the end of the second lap I was creating some distance but terrified (and paranoid) that there would be a late surge to knock me out. For some reason I thought doing this would be a good idea, maybe to psyche out the competition… or because of other, undiagnosed reasons.
We cruised through the next lap and at each turn I tried to gauge my lead without hinting at my fear. Around lap four is when I noticed that third place (Justin) was falling off the lead group. He was one of the people I considered much faster and catching him was out of the question. Over the course of the next lap I was able to pass Justin to slip into third. Again, my inexperience racing actual people left me worrying that I was now just a sitting duck. I tried to hold it together and maintain a solid pace and make him work for it if he wanted to pass me back.
The final results show I was able to put some decent space between Justin and myself (see above, Justin in distance). Misha had a tough time with the pace, but to his credit he ran his first ever marathon 10 days ago in 3:13. In Austin. The big news though is that I MADE THE TEAM!! My third place finish means I’m the 9th fastest person on the ten-person team. Overall I’m most happy about redeeming my crash and burn from last year.
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p>Based on my Garmin saying 3.33 miles, I averaged a
6:19 min/mile pace. Not bad, especially considering I’ve been doing approximately zero speed work since mid January. So with the tryouts behind me, it’s back to marathon training.
SXSW is basically a 2 week long holiday in Austin that aligns with “winter” making way for spring. So it’s only appropriate to use early March as the real start of the year. New trailers in Austin are cropping up all over the city spreading their delicious food to residents and visitors alike. In just this last year there are hundreds of new food trailers. Here are a few noteworthy trailers new to the scene in the last year. Hope you’re hungry!
click to see the full guide
Crossing the finish line of the LIVESTRONG Austin Half Marathon also marked the end of the Austin Distance Challenge. Five races spanning from early October to mid February, pitting Austin’s finest runners against one another in a little royal rumble friendly competition. Part of what I love most about living in Austin is the number of races that start right out my front door. In all I ran the IBM 10K, Run for the Water 10 Miler, Decker Half Marathon, 3M Half Marathon, and the LIVESTRONG Half Marathon.
The whole ADC was broken into two tracks: the Half Challenge and Full Challenge, which was determined by doing the LIVESTRONG Half or Full Marathon. Got it? Good. I chose the Half Challenge because I had bigger fish to fry later in the year and didn’t want to get beat up by the Full Marathon.
This was my first foray in to any kind of race series. It was a lot of fun working towards a progressive goal with each race only part of a larger challenge. Bottom line is it was a lot of fun. From a runner’s standpoint, I wish there were more of a social aspect to the competitors, either in an online community or in person at scheduled meet-ups. I think it would have created a fun element of competition through the interaction of the runners.
So how’d I do in the Austin Distance Challenge? Duh.
I actually only won my age group. Overall I came in 7th place, behind some crazy fast people. To brag be fair, there were a few races where I held back a little (like running 8 miles home from the IBM 10K or running 4 miles home from the LIVESTRONG Half), but I don’t think it made much of a difference in the overall standings.
Would I do it again? Definitely! But not this year. I’ll be out of town for one of the races so I can’t complete the entire challenge. It’s too bad since they added a sixth race to the series. Maybe next next year!
Brutal. That’s the only word I can use to describe the LIVESTRONG Half Marathon course. Where other races have rolling hills (or all downhill), Austin’s half course goes for long, endless, steep hills that suck the life out of any runner’s legs. But I was considering this race as just a training run for the Vermont Marathon, so no pressure. I just wanted to run 7 minute miles, which comes out to 1:31:46. Piece of cake…
Sunday will be my first running of the LIVESTRONG Austin Half Marathon. I’ve done the full twice before (including my second ever marathon and last year). I’m not really looking to set any land speed records here. However, this race is going to have all kinds of secondary goals attached to it.
Howdy folks! Just wanted to give a quick update where I stand in the Austin Distance Challenge rankings. After the Decker Challenge the ADC contestants were broken into “half” and “full” buckets based on the LIVESTRONG Austin Half Marathon and Austin Full Marathon. I’m running the Austin Half, so I’m in the ADC Half Track. Got it? Good.
Bear with me as I break it down:
In the Male 25-29 Age Group Half Track, I’m in first. By a mile. By ten miles. It’s a small field, made even smaller by splitting the runners into Half and Full groups. After adding up the four race times I’m leading by about an hour and nine minutes. And yes, I’m in first out of five remaining runners.
Overall in the Half Track I’m sitting in 8th. Best case scenario I can move up to 7th but no more than that. It’s shocking to me that my age group is the slowest group below age 55. For the record, I’m in eighth out of 64, so that’s at least pretty good!
I’d say based on where I stand now, I’m not looking to set a new PR in the Austin Half. The final times will be updated after the Austin Marathon weekend. Looking forward to wrapping things up and getting fully into training for Vermont!
I just kicked off my first week of marathon training for Vermont! So far we’re rocking the schedule. 8 miles, 12 miles, 5 miles, 9 miles. That’s the first four days (out of six). The crazy part about this schedule is that this week will finish up with 55 miles. That’s where the peak of my previous training planned topped out. It’ll be a delicate balance between increasing mileage and staying away from injury.
