The day after we got back from Moab I headed out on a girls' trip to Texas. Our friend Jeni (in the middle below) was turning 40 and really wanted us all to do the Silo District 1/2 Marathon in Waco, Texas for her birthday. It ended up getting canceled, but we made shirts and decided to just do our own.
The rental house we got was one from Chip and Joanna's show "Fixer Upper". It was tiny and cute. Andy has always wondered about the quality of the renovations on these t.v. shows, and I was sad to tell him that he is right - the quality is not the best and the neighborhoods are super sketchy. It was still really fun, though. The first night that we were there (the night before our 1/2 marathon), we were doing some pre-race yoga super late at night when we heard a sound that sounded like a gunshot outside. It turned out at the drunk driver had t-boned a parked car right outside. Luckily not OUR car!
Race day! We originally planned to run the official race route, but quite a bit of it was blocked off for construction, so we had to figure out a new route as we went along. We first ran a loop around the Baylor University Campus, then ran along a trail by the river. Because we hit a few dead ends and had to turn around and figure out where to go, we all stuck together for the first 5-6 miles and that part took us longer than we hoped. Once we got to the river trail we spread out more and all went our own pace.
Try to ignore how sweaty and gross I look, but when I finished my 13.11 miles I had to take a photo to document!! We had seven ladies running and I ended up with the 3rd fastest time. I will take it!
After the race we headed over to Magnolia to just walk around. We ended up running into Mr. and Mrs. Stevens (Joanna Gaines' parents) when they were out on a prayer drive and saw us with our matching shirts. Mrs. Stevens went on a walk with us and took a group photo, while Mr. Stevens got us into a restaurant for lunch that we'd been unable to get reservations for.
Later that night we went out to dinner and were thrilled to not have to wear masks!
A picture of our rental house.
The next day we ate breakfast at Magnolia Table and then shopped at the Magnolia complex.
Apparently this used to be an old baseball field and Babe Ruth stood in this exact spot to hit a ball. They have created a tiny baseball field as a monument to the one that used to be here, with homeplate in the exact spot it was years ago.
The next day we headed up to Austin and went on a bike tour of the city. It was a little crazy (we literally headed off the trail and road across a grassy field, then headed into downtown with tons of traffic and homeless people screaming at us), but it was so fun and a really interesting way to learn more about the city.
We rode right up to the State Capitol, which was massive! Apparently they purposely spent millions on an addition just to make sure it stayed the biggest in the nation.
Later that afternoon we went on a hike. As we were parking we saw a car that looked suspicious like it was looking for people to rob. Eventually we decided that we were just being paranoid because there were tons of other cars in the parking lot and people coming and going from the trail, so we headed off.
We found a rope swing and peer-pressured each other into all jumping off it and swimming in the river. We later noticed that there were some huge fish and turtles also swimming in there. Barf.
On the way back to the car a few of us took a wrong turn and ended up having to job back about 1/2 a mile to get on the right trail. When we were almost back to the car we received a call -- we had been broken into.
We later learned that a bag with about $1000 worth of Magnolia merchandise had been left right on the front seat with just a jean jacket thrown over it. That's exactly what the car burglars took. We were dang lucky they were just going for the easy grab, because all our suitcases were stacked in the back of the van at the time and several of the ladies had their purses stashed under the floor storage.
Because of the car situation, we had to get a different rental car, and it didn't have enough room for all of us, so the next day three ladies took the rental car and went back down to Waco to re-buy all the stolen stuff, while the other four of us stayed in Austin to shop. We then took an Uber to the airport to meet the others later to head home.
Despite the unfortunate car snafu, it was a great trip! It was super fun to get to know some of the ladies better, and to experience fun times in Texas since I've only ever driven through. I don't know if I'll ever agree to do a 1/2 marathon again, but I'm glad that we did it once!
